Hetalia - Down the Rabbit Hole

Chapter 16 and oooh boy, my ass wasn't the only one kicked writing this chapter.

I would like to say how amazing everyone has been during the wait. People have been posting such lovely reviews that I literally squeal over whenever I read them, even when I haven't been particularly active. You guys are the real heroes here.

Now without further ado, I present you lovelies with chapter 16.

Hold onto your butts. It's gonna be crazy ride :)

Spades District, 221 Baker's Street, The Kirkland Residence.

'He just totally ditched me! No goodbye, no 'Sorry love, left the crumpets in the oven too long~', Nada! Nothing!,' Alfred Jones whined with a pout as he and Matthew stepped in the Kirkland's lobby lift; Reina at the front desk shooting them a nod before sending the button to send them up. 'Totally ditched me, right after I invited him to get some lunch to.'

Matthew rolled his eyes. 'You mean after you two kissed?' He clarified with a touch of snark. When Alfred didn't reply, keeping his eyes fixed onto his reflection, Matthew followed up with a sigh.

'So you like Kirkland now? I thought you were in love with Britannia.'

'I am in love with Britannia. I just— I think I have feelings for Arthur as well.'

'Uh-huh.'

Alfred glared at him. 'It's complicated, okay?'

'I'll say,' Matthew huffed as the lift doors opened with a ping! 'couldn't you just date Arthur as Alfred, and Britannia as Columbia?'

'No! I'd never even think of going behind either of their backs! C'mon, Matt. They deserve so much better than that.' Alfred scolded before he gave a hard rap on the front door. No sooner had he done, the two brothers shared a look when there was the muted sound of shouting from the inside. They jumped when the door cracked open to reveal Dylan looking pale.

'Get your bloody hands off me!'

'You need to calm down.' Allistor's voice came smooth and authoritative to no avail.

'I'll calm down when I've smashed his shins in!'

'Uh, hey guys. Maybe now's not the best time.' Dylan greeted with a strained smile.

Matthew peeked onto his tiptoes to try to see into the penthouse. 'Is that Britannia? Is he hurt?'

Alfred needed no more persuasion and ignored Dylan's protests as he pushed into the apartment to see Allistor pinned against the floor over beside the dining table by Britannia.

'You!,' Britannia shot off Allistor when he saw Columbia and stalked forward to grip the collar of his suit and slam him against the window. 'How could you!'

'What— are you—talking about?' Alfred grunted around the tight grip.

'Save it, Arthur told me everything. Why the fuck does Alfred Jones have investigation files on Yao Wang?!'

Oh.

Oh no.

'Fuck.'

'Fuck's right you cockered gimp!,' Britannia growled, reaching onto his tiptoes to shove his face into Alfred's personal space. 'so I suggest you explain yourself snappiness.'

'Hold on. What?!,' Matthew shrilled looking between him and Britannia with saucepan eyes. 'You failed to mention that!'

'Matt—' Alfred tried but Britannia cut him off with throttle.

'God, I could ring your bloody neck! What the hell were you thinking? A college student, Columbia!'

'Matthew is a college student. You've never had a problem with him.' Alfred argued and cried out when his feet were swept out from under him. His head smacked back painfully against the floor as Britannia straddled his chest.

'You had him investigate Wang, and you had him investigate the Winter Syndicate! Admit it!'

Alfred stared up at him, bewildered. 'What? No I didn't.'

'How else did he get that information then without field work?' Britannia hissed, applying pressure with his elbow against Alfred's thorax.

'I didn't do it!' Alfred insisted and flinched when Britannia tightened his grip on his collar and lifted him up to slam him back against the floor.

'The Syndicate placed a hit, a fucking hit on him!,' The Brit shrieked. 'That Lucid child from the university? He was there for him. Alfred nearly died because of you!'

Alfred closed his eyes with an exhale.

Wrong. The Syndicate had placed a hit on his head because Doctor Braginsky had seen him as Alfred with Arthur at the Mia incredibly exhibit. He had tried to have him killed to get to Arthur, and by extension, Britannia. And of course, Alfred could clarify none of this without immediately raising suspicion on how he could know this. To confess it would be to confess his secret identity.

The grip on his collar loosened, Britannia's head bowed down. 'Why are you even doing this, Columbia?' He muttered, barely audible.

Alfred's heart was a dead weight in his chest. 'To rescue the missing neuroscientists. To protect Terra, same as you.'

'No,' There was no warmth, no emotion in Britannia's tone, and it made Alfred's flesh break into goosebumps. 'why are you doing this?,'

A pause. Britannia leant in sinisterly close. 'Is it the attention? Is it the thrills? The kicks?'

Something ugly rose up from Alfred's gut and coiled it into knots. He grabbed Britannia by the shoulder and rolled his hips to reverse their positions, Britannia's back hitting the floor with a hard smack as he was pinned beneath him.

'You don't have a god damn clue.' Alfred heard himself snarl as he bared down upon the Brit with more force than strictly necessary.

But if Britannia was hurting, he didn't show it. 'Does it stroke your obnoxious ego, playing the hero?' He spat back, and Alfred let go as though he'd be electrocuted.

Was— was that what Britannia actually thought of him? That all the hero work he'd down had been some— some massive ego stroke? Did he really have such a low opinion of him?

'I became Columbia because you—you inspired me to be. Because to me, you were everything a hero should be. You stood up for the little guy, even when there was no one to stand with you. I…wanted to stand with you,' Alfred bit down his lip to stop it from trembling. 'Everything I've done, everything, has been for you.'

There was a deadly still silence. The room's temperature had seemingly plummeted to a shivering chill.

Britannia stared up at him, right there in front of him, but simultaneously, farther then he had ever been.

'Get out of my sight.'

The words didn't register to Alfred's brain, and he mutely stared back struck.

What?

'Come on lad.' Someone, Allistor, softly encouraged him to standing, and— and then they outside the front door; Matthew was at his side.

Alfred slowly blinked at the Scot. 'That…that's it? That can't be it.'

Dark copper brows were furrowed as Allistor Kirkland crossed his forearms with a regrettable sigh. 'There's nothing I can do. It's Britannia's call.'

Alfred blinked again. 'But, but Wang. The scientists.'

'I'm sorry Columbia. But my hands are tied,' Allistor admitted with a heavy heart; the familiar green brightness behind his eyes, dull. 'Good luck lads. God knows we're gonna need it.'

With that, Allistor shut the door with a low click, shutting Alfred and Matthew out of their home, and their lives.

Downtown Spades District, Cyan Apartments, Alfred Jones' and Matthew William's Apartment.

Alfred didn't recall the drive back to their place, nor the climb up three fleets of stairs or even actually entering the apartment. His feet had dragged and tripped up on nothing, and whatever he looked at, he didn't truly look at it so much as stared through it.

He had numbly felt Matthew ease him onto their moth bitten couch and heard the soft hiss and pop of two cans being opened. The can was pressed into his hands, his fingers automatically wrapping around the cold tin cylinder, but Alfred didn't have the will of express a form of thanks.

'I can't believe it's over,' Matthew sighed from the cramped kitchen counter. 'Just like that, back to business as usual. Regular, old patrols. No objectives, no special missions. Nothing…It feels kinda, empty,'

When Alfred made no comment, Matthew continued, his rambling filling the harrowing, empty space between them. 'Well, I mean, now that we have some free time, we could maybe consider the Guardian's prospect. Or, or, we could just take some time off, you know? Focus on getting your grades back up, put crime fighting on the back burner and get back to being just broke college students.'

The prospect of looking back to what they once were, after having a small, but-oh-so-glorious taste of what they could be, made Alfred mentally recoiled. His can hit the side table with firm resolve.

No. They might be down, but goddammit they were not out.

'No. No, screw that. Screw this,' Alfred gritted and shot up off the couch, the floorboards creaking. 'We are not gonna be benched on a case we practically made!'

Matthew's jaw dropped. 'You aren't serious.'

Alfred cracked his knuckles, grinning at the new fire in his belly. 'We can totally do it. We've done our research, we know that Wang is the one kidnapping the scientists. We just need to find the clues to where they are being kept.'

'Um, small detail. What about Britannia? I doubt he'll be chuffed to see you after telling you to keep away.' Matthew reminded with a raised brow, and Alfred sighed.

'Yeah, I know. He was being a A-class a-hole back there, just making accusations when he doesn't know the whole story.'

'Why do I feel like there's a "but" in here?'

'I still love him Matt. I do, and I'm don't know if that'll ever change. I don't know if I want it too…But I wanna be with him, as his equal, so I'm not just roll over whenever he says to. Britannia needs us, and hell if I'm going to let him down now.'

Matthew considered him with crossed arms. 'You're hopeless, you know that?'

Alfred winked at him and offered a fist bump. 'I do. Got my back bro?'

Matthew scoffed and bumped his fist. 'Always.'

Hearts District, Red Light District, A backstreet alley near The Jasmine Dragon.

The rain thick and fast against the window of Seamus Kirkland's rover, creating a watery veil that hid away the winking neon lights of the streets beyond. Britannia traced a particularly fat raindrop with his index as it slid down tinted glass, ignoring the incessant tapping of his brother's finger on the wheel. The two of them hadn't spoken since Columbia had left the apartment. Britannia hadn't spoken to anyone since Columbia had left the apartment.

Beside him, Seamus let out a deep sigh and glanced at the dash clock, Britannia mirrored the action; it was midnight, time to move.

'It's not too late to call Columbia.' Seamus offered when Britannia unlatched his seatbelt.

'No.' He stated without negotiation.

'Columbia and Acadia is part of this team. They should be here.'

'I will not work with the man that almost got Alfred killed. He didn't even try to deny it.'

'It's— more complication than that.' Seamus confessed, and Britannia snapped his head over to him; the icicle that had impaled itself into his heart, courtesy of Columbia, twisted in deeper.

'You knew.' He hissed and got all the confirmation he needed when he saw Seamus' face fall.

'Arthur…'

'Seems everyone's got a knife for my back nowadays.' Britannia growled as he kicked open the door and stepped out into the cold downpour, cutting Seamus' follow up shout short with a slam. Equally grateful and resentful of the reduced visibility the rain brought about, Britannia clung to the shadows of the back streets as he prowled his way toward the end of the district's promenade where the Jasmine Dragon towered above all other buildings.

The seven tier Chinese pagoda existed on a small island just off the coast of the Heart's District; lit up brightly by red and pink ground lights to contrast against the dark backdrop of the night sky and pitch black waters. As Britannia drew closer, breaking away from the urban concrete pavements and streets to crawl through asian influenced decorative foliage, he peered down to the cliffside station where he saw multiple metal gondolas the size of small buses simultaneously leave and enter; the exiting one traveling diagonally down via wire to the foregrounds of island where an identical rail station received them.

Gravel shifted and scattered beneath his boots as he slid downhill and rolled into cover behind the small hut which he could only assume held the operating controls for the sky rail. Back pressed to the brick wall, he paused to listen for any indication of alarm before peering around the edge to assert that the scene was all clear. Security had clearly no care for the weather and retreated to dryer conditions.

Britannia stayed in his crouch, and when a carriage passed parallel to his position, he tucked and rolled through it's open doorway. The metal groaned as it's weight distribution was shifted with the addition of Britannia's, and Britannia had just tucked himself into a corner to wait out the ride when to his great surprise, and annoyance, the comm in his mask turned on with a bleep!

'I think you hurt Éire's' feelings.' Allistor's voice crackled with static, and Britannia ground his teeth together.

'You know, I was almost certain I disabled the comm link before I left.' He retorted with curt sarcasm, peeping over the ledge to see that he was about halfway to the island.

Allistor sighed, and Britannia could practically see him pinching the bridge of his nose. 'Britannia, you can't just push away the people who care about you.'

'Funny. I'll keep that in mind when I find some.'

'Britannia.'

'Oh please, Éire will get over it.' Britannia scoffed.

'I'm not talking about just Éire,' Allistor clarified and green eyes rolled.

'Not you to.'

'Columbia deserves to be part of this team Britannia. Without him, we wouldn't of even known about Wang's involvement. I completely get why you're upset about him—'

'Upset!' Britannia screeched, feeling as though the word couldn't come close to describing how he felt, but Allistor ignored the outburst and continued on.

'But Columbia is not a bad person, and past all this that you're feeling right, you know that you do care about him.'

Britannia pressed his lips together, holding his silence for a moment more. 'But I care about him more,' He stated truthfully and the gondola shuddered as it slowed to pull into island station.

'Where am I going Saxony?'

'The commercial faculties are all above ground. My best bet would to start your search in the warehouse underground.' Allistor instructed and Britannia nodded as he dashed out of the moving carriage and station to skit around the stone foundation of the pagoda, seeking an entry point. His patience was rewarded when he spotted a half concealed trapdoor beside a back entrance, presumably the staff's.

Britannia approached cautiously, constantly on guard as he knelt and pulled a lock pick from his belt. Twenty seconds pasted (a new low for him. Mother would be rolling in her grave) before the padlock dropped to the grass and Britannia flung away the chain and carefully eased himself inside.

The stairwell led further down underground, the air damp and stale, before the stone floors gave way to cement and opened up to a colossal warehouse; vast space of the storage room filled with towering metal shelves like that of a library, each one holding wooden crates upon crates of unknown content.

Aware that there could indeed be others just out of sight around the shelves, Britannia crept froward to where a pile of crates had been half loaded onto a forklift. A line formed between thick brows when he noticed the bright blue emblem of the Spades district painted onto the top of the loose lid, and he grabbed it and lifted it away to look inside.

Britannia had busted enough smugglers and drug dealers to know a crate of drugs looked when he saw one. The crate was packed to the brim with clear packets of fine white powder, and when Britannia set aside the lid and picked up a packet to read it's label, he went stiff.

The single letter 'X' stared back at him mockingly, and Britannia knew that he didn't have to look in the crate again to come to the conclusion that the packets inside shared the share label. Twisting his head, his stomach dropped saw that other crates amongst the loaded pile had been similarly branded, only instead of the blue spade; there was a yellow diamond, a green club and a red heart. All the hands of Terra. A stone formed in the pit of his stomach.

Wang intended to launch 'X' in each district. The awful symptoms and patient case files flashed through Britannia's mind and a chill rode through him. Only, this was of a different kind. This chill was familiar, and it gave him all the warning he needed to pivot, wrench back the hand that reached for him, and judo throw it's owner over his hip.

Not allowing the perpetrator a second to catch his breath, Britannia crushed his knee down against the man's Adam's apple and pulled his fist back to punch his lights out.

'Woah! Hey! Hey, hey! Stop! Hey, it's me!' Columbia rasped around the pressure applied to his throat, the all american idiot frantically waving his hands to make Britannia falter.

What the—?!

Disbelief corroded to anger and rather than relaxing, Britannia applied more pressure. 'What are you doing here?' He growled, unable to resist his lips from curling when the american gave a high squeak of fear.

'Just— come on, dude— just, please hear me out.'

After a few seconds of consideration, Britannia eased up on the force, feeling Columbia's pulse race beneath his gloves. 'There, now talk.'

Columbia glanced down suggestively at his knee that pinned him, and sighed when Britannia made no more moves to remove it. 'Okay. I'm here to find the neuroscientists.'

'That is no longer any of your business.' Britannia hissed.

'It became my business when we broke into N.O.V.A and I lifted the damn door that got us this lead,' Columbia countered with raised brows. When Britannia didn't immediately follow up, he pressed his advance, placing a hand on the Brit's knee and using his strength to easily pry it off him. 'Look, I know you've got your issues with me. But I'm here now, and we'd find the neuroscientists a hell of a lot faster together then apart.'

As much as Britannia craved to smack his stupid face, he reluctantly acknowledged that Columbia's reasoning was too sound to argue. With deliberate slowness, he straightened up and off Columbia to allow him to do the same.

'All these crates contain 'X' and one of the district deck symbols,' Britannia stated, nodding to said pile. 'Wang's clearly preparing to launch them onto the market.'

'Yeah, so we know where the drugs are being kept, but where are the scientists?' Columbia questioned with his brows drawn together.

'Other than this warehouse, there's nowhere else Wang could be keeping them in this building to have a production of this scale.' Matthew's voice popped with static over the shared channel.

'Aye. He must have them in a safe house nearby.' Allistor agreed with a hum and Columbia chewed his lower lip.

'But the drugs are here, ready to go out. There's gotta be some of kind of record of where and when they came in. Wang's a shady businessman right? He's has to keep track of his stock.' The American deduced, and Britannia was surprised he hadn't come to the same conclusion first. But of course there'd be a stock list.

'I doubt the record would be digital. I suspect that any confidential papers would be kept in Wang's private quarters, likely under lock and key to.' Britannia agreed.

'Acadia?' Columbia requested, and there was the sound of frantic tapping on a keyboard.

'There's a service elevator in the kitchen that'll take you to the corridor that connects to Wang's suite. The door to your right leads the kitchen.' Came his answer.

Columbia turned to Britannia with an extended hand. 'Truce?'

Britannia regarded the hand, but made no move to take it. 'Temporary truce.' He icily corrected and breezed past the American.

That could of gone better, Alfred Jones admitted to himself as he followed Britannia's lead to sink low into a crouch as they approached the door to the kitchen. Sure, Britannia had tackled him to the ground (again), but then, again maybe he should thought about that when he'd snuck up on him.

Alfred was of two minds about what he should do. He desperately wanted to clear the bad air between them so that they could go back to the way they had been; back to when Alfred had been making progress with his advances. But given the way Britannia had pinned him to the ground and threatened him twice, Alfred knew that this was something Britannia would not let go easily.

He had never seen Britannia that pissed before, so it boggled him as to why. Why was he so specifically hung up on him as Alfred being put in danger? To say that he was because of Arthur and his feelings toward him felt off. At least, it would if Britannia's feelings toward Arthur were purely platonic…

Shit.

It all completely made sense as well; Britannia's protectiveness over him when the school was attacked. He had been protecting him because he knew that Arthur liked him, and now he hated Columbia because he thought he was the reason that the Winter Syndicate had placed a hit on him.

Of course Britannia liked Arthur. They'd grown up together, they were both insanely talented, and strong and brave and beautiful and— and…

Alfred repressed the urge to smash his head against the kitchen door as Britannia eased it open.

What had he ever done to deserve this?

The large spotless kitchen was empty when Britannia peeked around the preparation counter and signalled the all clear. The service elevator was an old kind, with a triangle netted door you'd more likely see in a delict building rather than a high-rise entertainment theatre. Columbia stepped in after Britannia, pulling the door shut behind him and hit the first button.

The metal grated and groaned as the elevator began to ascend, and Columbia's stomach was heavy with the happier memory of the last time they had been in an elevator shaft together.

'Just because we're cooperating on this, doesn't change anything between us.' Britannia broke the thick silence with his arms crossed, refusing to look at him.

Alfred sighed 'B—'

'No. You don't get to call me that. Not anymore.'

'Jeez! When are you going to stop acting like I killed someone?'

'You might as well of.' Britannia riposted with the same earlier frigidness, and Alfred had had enough. He grabbed the Brit by the shoulders and forced him to look at him.

'That is it! Look at me! Really look at me, Britannia. Do I really look like I'm a bad guy?' Alfred exclaimed, shaking the smaller man to cause his head to bang wildly.

Britannia threw off his hands. 'Piss off! You say that everything you've done has been for my sake? Are you really so blind to think that that is acceptable? Don't make me laugh.' He spat, and the dam that was Alfred's temper broke.

'God! I'm not the blind one here Britannia, you are! How I not see? How can you not see?! I don't just want to be like you, I want to be with you! I'm freaking in love you! You're my hero, I've wanted to tell you that for so long, that I love you, and- and…,' Alfred realised that his shoulders were shaking, not with anger, but relief. To finally confess the words that he had kept a secret lifted a weight off his heart that he hadn't known he'd been carrying.

'I love you,' He repeated softer, lower than before, and glanced up from the floor to see that Britannia was deadly still; so much so that Alfred hasn't sure if he was even breathing. 'uh, Britannia? I—' He tried, when the lift doors opened too early to reveal a group of four men in suits.

'So I said, "That's the waaaayy it goes—' One of them trailed off as both parties stared at each other for a second of stunned silence.

And then everything moved.

'Oi!' The nearest one to the lift managed to get out before Alfred's fist connected against his chest, and launched him back into the others; sending them scattering down like tenpin bowling pins.

Alfred looked down to his clenched fist and then back to Britannia, who stared back.

'Run?'

'Run.' Britannia agreed, and they ran.

The floor the lift had stopped at led out onto a high catwalk of red wood, where below it, an luxurious sushi bar bustled; the chatter of dining clients, clink of plates and soft mellow music wafting up.

'Okay! You're going to want to stay straight until you get to the second set of stairs ,' Matthew instructed, the wooden planks creaking under their boots as they ran. 'that will take you up to where you can catch another elevator to Wang's floor.'

'You got it Acadia—'

'Columbia get down!' Britannia cried and Alfred felt all of his breath exit his lungs when he was tackled from behind, narrowly missing the bullet that whistled over his head.

'Intruders! Sound the alarm!' The gunman ahead of them that held a smoking silenced pistol called over his shoulder and Alfred heard the thumping of hurried footsteps.

'We can't let ourselves get cornered here.' Britannia warned as they clambered to their feet, the Brit stretching out a hand and with a swipe, telepathically wretched out of the gunman's hand to send it spinning to the restaurant below.

'Yeah, easier said than done, dude,' Alfred grimaced as more thugs filtered onto the catwalk from both sides; reminding him of that killer scene from Kill Bill, he just hoped there was no 'Go-go' among them. 'I don't see a way out without wrecking these fools.'

'Then let's make short work of this.' Britannia declared, his confidence spending a delicious shiver down Alfred's spine. This was how he dreamt it would be. He and Britannia back to back against the world.

'Yeah! Come at me bro!' He bellowed as the first thug charged at him. Easily sidestepping the man, Alfred grabbed him by the cuff and spun him around to fling him back the way he'd came. The man crashed into the one behind him, and even as the two collapsed in a heap, Alfred felt himself break into a ridiculous grin.

Heck yeah! He could do this all day, he thought as he caught an incoming punch with his own fist and threw it wide to off balance the offender. He shoved the man's side to knock him back, and half turned to see if Britannia had noticed how much ass he was kicking, when it all fell apart.

'Columbia your flank!' Britannia gasped too late when a well built yakuza crunched their shoulder into Alfred's abdomen in a hard shoulder tackle. 'Columbia!' Britannia reached out to him, but the tackler's momentum was unstoppable as it carried them over the catwalk's ledge.

Suspension.

And then,

Gravity.

'Columbia!' Britannia cried out, too far away to catch the American before he dropped over the ledge, and winced when he heard the shatter of glass and follow up screams of the diners below.

The screech of another attack brought his attention back to the catwalk, and Britannia parried an upcoming kick before retaliating by crunching his elbow into the thug's nose. He box kicked him square in the chest before he spun and sprang off the railing after Columbia.

Britannia rolled with the impact and was back on his feet to charge at the yakuza that was standing over Columbia's flax boy with a broken bottle in his hand with a roar. The distraction was enough to make the man freeze, and Britannia kicked off the long bar to clip him across the jaw and snap it sideways.

The man lurched, reeling back to recover ground, but Britannia was on him. He ducked under the yakuza's slash, and caught the second, twisting the wrist around to smash the broken glass into unusable pieces against the bar top.

The victory was short and sweet though as the man's freehand grabbed him by his hood to fling him away. Britannia's feet tripped over themselves when the man lunged forward to bash one of the metal bar stools into his side. The Brit cried out as his arm jarred and braced for a follow up strike before Columbia reared up behind the yakuza to lock him in a chokehold.

Floundering, the asian man forced them both to back-pedal and bang Columbia's back against the restaurant's stereo into the wall.

'This is Heart Radio, and this is the Buzzcock's 'Ever fallin' in love' for all you pining souls out there!

'You spurn my natural emotions,

You make me feel I'm dirt

and I'm hurt,'

The man crunched his elbow into Columbia's side to draw a tight grunt of pain, and seeing his chance, Britannia bolted forward to ram his knee into the man's exposed stomach.

'And if I start a commotion

I run the risk of losing you

and that's worse,'

The yakuza choked as he reared forward and then snapped his head back into Columbia's nose; the American letting go with a howl and was unable to stop the brutal backhand that struck Britannia back.

'Ever fallin' in love with someone

Ever fallin' in love, in love with someone

In love with someone

You shouldn't have fallen in love with?'

Jaw throbbing, Britannia's head was too full of fog to properly block the flurry of blows that their attacker unleashed upon him. He staggered back, the bar's edge digging into the small of his back when the man grabbed the front of his suit to lift him off his feet and slam him down hard against the counter.

'I can't see much of a future

Unless we find out what's to blame

what a shame,'

Britannia wheezed, desperately trying to draw air back into his lungs, and shouted when the man grabbed his head and smacked it back against the counter again. Lights exploded behind Britannia's eyes, and it took everything he had to catch the man's fist going for his jugular. He locked it straight, straining his feet against the man's shoulder to keep it that way before he struck the elbow up with a crack! to break the bone.

'And we won't be together much longer

Unless we realise that we

are the same,'

'ARRGH!' The man screeched and swung wide when Columbia charged into his flank, grabbing him by his wirily hair to do as he had done to Britannia, and slam his head into the bar; the man refusing to go limp until Columbia repeated the action with more force.

'Ever fallin' in love with someone

Ever fallen in love, in love with someone

Ever fallin' in love,

in love with someone

you shouldn't have fallin'

in love with~'

'Britannia, are you alright?' Britannia groggily heard Columbia pant as he leaned over to help him with an offered hand. The American looked awful, a thick trail of blood ran from his bruised nose and he sported a horribly swollen cheek and split lip; Britannia dreaded to think what their backs and ribs looked like. Allistor was going to kill them.

His head hated him as he pushed himself to slide off the bar, gasping when the simple action ignited sparks of pain all over his back and made his brain feel like liquid in his skull.

'Just peachy.' He slurred through clenched teeth before he reflexively grabbed onto Columbia's shoulder when the floor swayed under him.

'Woah! Hey! B! Stay with me!' Columbia exclaimed as he caught him the moment his knees threatened to buckle.

'I'm—That bastard may of hit my head harder than I thought,' Britannia gingerly admitted, gratefully leaning into Columbia's touch when he wrapped an arm around his waist and hooked his arm over his shoulders. 'If we could find a quiet place where I could heal my concussion.'

'No prob B, your hero is here to save the day!' Columbia grinned and then winced at the pain it caused to his face. Using his herculean strength, he practically carried all of Britannia's bodyweight as he led them toward the askew paper door left open when all the diners had fled the scene.

'That's all you ever seem to do, save my sorry arse.' Britannia muttered with his head hung, suppressing the nausea that rolled over him in waves.

'Well, you know, I don't mind it at all.' Columbia sheepishly replied, and Britannia glanced up to him to see that his cheeks weren't red solely from the bruising.

Ah. Right. Before they'd been thrown into it all, Columbia had confessed to him. He had said that he loved him…

'Columbia, about what you said to me. Back in the elevator.' Britannia tentatively prompted, and watched as the tips of Columbia's ears turned red.

'Uh, um— yeah. C-could I maybe get like a do over with that? Things were kinda—tense, and I was shouting a lot and—'

'What you said, was it true? Did you really mean it?' Britannia cut off, and Columbia's gentle grip tightened around him.

'Of course I did.' Columbia breathed, his voice softer than Britannia had ever heard it before, it's quivered, vulnerability struck a cord inside him that went straight to his heart.

'Col—'

'There you are,' An accented voice declared to cause Britannia and Columbia's heads to snap forward and see a man central of the room of tatami mats and paper walls. The man was of asian descent, with short dark hair and equally dark eyes; a robe of jade green hung from his small and slender frame. 'The intruders that has gotten everyone scrambling. But who would of thought that it would be the one whose caused my cousin so much grief? The infamous Britannia Angel himself, and his…lackey.'

'The name's Columbia, pal. Got it memorised?' Columbia scowled as he eased his grip from around Britannia and manoeuvred himself to stand between them.

The jade man tutted and lowered himself into a low stance 'I will make short work of an upstart like you.'

Columbia rolled his tense shoulder and sank into a stance of his own. 'Think we can go for another round, B?'

Britannia suppressed the urge to groan at the thought of it, his head pounding in protest. It knew he wouldn't be able to take another hit like before. 'Let's just get this over with.' He gritted raising his own fists.

However before either of them could of moved, the ol' reliable warning chill raised the hairs on the back of Britannia's neck, and disoriented, he spun too late to avoid the butt of a handgun from cracking into his temple. His body went limp, scarcely able to hear the thunder of yakuza men's footsteps as they flooded into the room over the ringing white noise inside his skull.

Feeling as though his every limbs were made of lead, Britannia strained against his body to raise his head, and opened his mouth to croak a warning to Columbia as he saw the jade man close in, when a blindside kick to the head plummeted him into darkness.

*Sitting on a chair whilst my house burns around me* This is fine.

Ha, woo this was a quite the chapter to write, especially the action. God, how I have missed writing fighting actions. It's difficult, getting your choreography to translate onto paper, but I felt that it wasn't too shabby :)

Emotions this chapter were no sleaze either, even when writing it, I felt (considering just how much Alfred is in love with him) that Britannia with his 'Get out of my sight' was incredibly cruel, especially with Columbia's little 'Of course I did' later on.

The romance in this chapter was a rollercoaster; misunderstandings, Alfred near losing heart when he thought that Britannia was in love with Arthur, who he suspects he is also in love with alongside Britannia, Alfred breaking and confessing his true feelings, Britannia's intake of this and having no idea how to respond because of his feelings for Alfred. I do, however, love that when the shit hits the fan, they can put away all the drama and kick some serious ass.

Wanna listen to the song featured in the chapter? Visit my tumblr: lollipoplou :)

Kudos to whoever spots the Rick and Morty reference, and hooooo boy I hope y'all ready for the angsty chapter coming next. Not even kidding, my writer's sadistic side was nonstop purring from just outlining it.

Look forward to it :)

Thank you for reading and I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. If you are liking what you see and want to see faster updates, please consider taking the time to leave a review telling me your thoughts, opinions and questions. Once again, thank you for reading and as always,

Until next time folks ;)