Hetalia - Down the Rabbit Hole

Chapter 18! Apologises for the long wait as always, quality always priorities over quantity for me.

And oh my god guys, the number of reviews for last chapter that started off as 'Holy shit!' had me rolling on the floor. Everyone loved it and I honestly cannot thank you all enough for your overwhelming positive feedback. You are all the reason I love writing for this fandom so much and I'd like to thank you all once again, because goddammit you deserve the same appreciation that you bless me with. Thank you.

If you haven't already, be sure to check out my Tumblr: lollipoplou where you can check out fan art has inspired the story, character playlists that I put together, and other fandom stuff :)

If anyone is interested in writing themselves, and seeing how well people seem to like them, I'll be posting a deconstruction meta of how I write action and fight scenes on my tumblr. Hopefully it can be of some help to whose who might find writing such scenes daunting. If it's well received, I might post similar writing advice posts in the future :)

And whose ready for some angst and fluff and romance? Hoo boy, time to get on the emotional rollercoaster again.

Buckle up boys.

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

A low moan stirred from Alfred Jones when he returned to the land of the living, stretching out his sleep drowsy limbs to feel soft bedsheets beneath him.

Mmhmm~

…

Wait. Bedsheets?

A dark shape moved behind his lids, and Alfred's eyes snapped open to reflexively grab the wrist of the hand that had been extending for his forehead; his grip vicelike to stop it in it's tracks. Arthur Kirkland stared back at him, dressed in a plain t-shirt and long shorts, his stunning green eyes wide against the backdrop of his bedroom flooded in sunlight.

Alfred blinked in confusion at the slight tint to his vision, before realising that he was still wearing his goggles.

'You're awake.' Arthur breathed relived and Alfred slowly, robotically uncurled his fingers, unable to tear his gaze away from the Brit's face; the dark bags that he had under his eyes the last time Alfred had seen him at college, missing to make him seemingly glow with health.

And then, like a tsunami, the memories of last night slammed into him, each wave with increasing vividness and clarity than the last; escaping the Jasmine Dragon, the jade man electrocuting him on top of the gondola. Arthur's face staring back down at him in Britannia's suit.

Arthur in Britannia's suit; his suit.

Arthur was Britannia.

Britannia-Arthur, defending him during the school attack. Britannia-Arthur, laying screaming on Allistor's operating table with his back tore to bloody ribbons.

Britannia-Arthur taking his face between his hands to kiss him.

Blood flooded Alfred's cheeks with the phantom sensation of Arthur's lips moulding against his. That had been his and Britannia's first kiss —one that Britannia, Arthur had initiated— and he hadn't even known it, been able to appreciate it's astronomical importance.

'You—The kiss.' He uttered, and when Arthur's cheeks turned a rose pink, Alfred silently swore he'd never seen a lovelier sight.

'I— It was CPR Columbia. You would of died otherwise.'

Alfred shifted so that he sat against Arthur's headboard and suppressed the urge to shake his head at the cruel misunderstanding.

No. No, no no. Not that kiss, the kiss, their first kiss. The one that Alfred himself had broken off because he hadn't wanted to fall in love with —what he had at least thought had been— two different people.

Alfred's restraint had never been more tested than in that moment as he sat there in front of the man he loved, and couldn't express any of the anguish that tore him from the inside out as the same thought circled around and around in his head.

His shaking fists curled the bedsheets below him into tight knots.

Arthur was Britannia, and Arthur loved him.

He loved Arthur.

And Arthur didn't know.

'Listen, I know that you likely have a lot of questions. But before that, I have to make something imperatively clear,' Arthur said with his face set and took Alfred's hand into his.

'I—understand that you have…deep affections, for me, Columbia. And, whilst I am incredibly flattered by such attention, I have to tell you that I can't recuperate such feeling. You have become dear to me, Columbia. So when I thought that you had endangered Alfred, I felt so betrayed—' Arthur's voice cracked, and he took a shaky breath to compose himself before continuing.

'I am in love with him, you see. I love him. His stupidly upbeat attitude, his unwavering kindness, and his smile,' Arthur sighed the last word as though it were a breath of fresh air, and his eyes drifted to the city skyline, 'it shines so brightly that I'm so completely blinded by it….He's my sun, Columbia. He's good and honest, and— and sometimes, when I'm with him, I can imagine what it would be like to be normal. Simply, and cleanly, normal.'

Alfred hadn't realised that he had been holding his breath until his lungs started to scream, and his heavy exhale drew Arthur's stare to latch back onto his.

'He can never be involved with us Columbia. You have to swear to me, swear to me that Alfred will never know about any of this. He can never know who I truly am, he can never be put in danger like that again. Not again. Please, Columbia.'

Alfred stared at Arthur, a feral glint of desperation in his eye.

'Take off your mask, reveal yourself. This is ridiculous, you love each other. Take off the mask and you two can be together!' a coy voice chimed, and Alfred's green eyed monster purred. Yes.

'Except, you can't,' Another, more rational voice sadly reasoned, 'Arthur loves you as Alfred because you are the only normal thing in his fucked up life. He treasures that, more than anything. You can't ruin that, not without breaking his heart.'

Alfred mentally shuddered when he recalled how Arthur had wept when he told him the truth about why the kid assassin had come after him. His horrible past, his morphed perception of himself, Arthur was already suffering so much; a wire too taunt, ready to snap.

Alfred couldn't snap him. He couldn't hurt him like that.

'Okay. I promise.' He somehow forced out and saw relief crash down on Arthur; releasing all the balled up tension in his body as he shifted back to his original position, having subconsciously closed the distance between them in his anxiety.

'Thank you, Columbia. You have no idea how much that means to me,' The Brit smiled before he cleared his throat and recomposed himself. 'I suppose that now you know the truth, I should tell you the story from the beginning. If you want to know, that is.'

'Of course I do.' Alfred automatically replied, his gut fluttering despite the knots it had twisted itself into. This was it, Arthur was going to tell him the whole story.

Arthur huffed a laugh at his puppy-like eagerness, and settled to tell his tale. 'I was born on the twenty-third of April in a private hospital on the Duke of Canterbury's Estate back in England, where all the staff were sworn to secrecy, to Victoria Elizabeth Mary of House Belacqua.'

Alfred's jaw dropped. 'House? As in noble house?'

'My great, great grandmother is a member of one of the more obscure branches of the royal family. And before you ask— no, Columbia, I do not have a claim to the throne. There's actually a good reason why you won't find the Belacqua name on many records.'

'Why?' Alfred asked, still wrestling with the fact that Arthur descended from nobility. Holy shit, the blonde clones had been right when they had fantasised that he was a relative of the Queen of England.

Arthur leant over to his bedside table and pulled out a black photo album to hand it over to Alfred. Shooting him an inquisitive look, Alfred flipped open the cover to be greeted with a picture of five year old Arthur being held in a woman's arms, who could of only been his mother, beneath a great lavender tree; both of them possessing the same heavenly beauty that belonged in old master's renaissance paintings; perfectly shaped cupid-bow lips, dark blond lashes, creamy skin with the faintest english rose blush.

Arthur had adopted every lovely feature from his mother, the only differences being the dark thick brows above his eyes that shared his mother's shape, but not their honied ember colour.

'Espionage,' Arthur's voice brought him back to present, and Alfred shook himself out of his daze, 'The Belacqua house has specialised in convert operations and espionage since the start of world war two. When the royal family needed something they couldn't trust to the secret service, they would come to us.'

'And, you're all spies?' Alfred muttered as he flipped to the next page to see ten year old Arthur against the back drop of an English estate manor on it's sprawling lawn, tensed with a fully drawn back bow and nocked arrow; his young face steeled with hawk like focus on the target just out of frame.

'Family business, love. It's in my blood.' Arthur said with a small smile that Alfred raised an eyebrow at whilst flicking through the next couple of pages. He stopped on a landscape shot of sixteen year old Arthur in military kevlar, an assault rifle slung over his shoulder as he posed grinning along with six other boys. The ground they stood on was red and dusty, like that of an exotic dessert and a great metal tank sat behind them.

Alfred didn't miss the way Arthur's eyes shone as he looked down at the faces.

'Mother took that whilst I was training with the SAS in Afghan. We were the Knight squadron. Merlin,' Arthur pointed to the dark haired, gangly boy with the sharpest cheekbones Alfred had ever seen.

'Lancelot, Percival, Gwaine, Leon, and Elyan,' He continued, naming each corresponding face.

'All codenames until they weren't.'

Alfred stiffened at that. 'So your real name—'

Arthur shook his head. 'No. Trust me when I tell you that Arthur Kirkland is my real name.'

'Kirkland. Your dad's name.' Alfred prompted testily, remembering how Arthur had last reacted to the topic, and sure enough saw the earlier light in Arthur's eye snap off; the shutters behind them slamming shut.

'My father,' Arthur spat the title as though it were corrosive acid on his tongue, 'is a man I pray you never have the misfortune to meet.'

'Wang called him the King of Singapore.' Alfred recalled and Arthur scowled that oh-so-familiar scowl of his. The longer Alfred stared at it, the more he questioned how he could of ever thought that anyone other than Arthur could of been behind Britannia's mask.

'To quote the devil "An understatement". My father is the apex predator of the Underworld. He inherited his father's business empire at eighteen, and met my mother ten years later.'

Alfred turned back to the first photograph of Victoria and little Arthur, and lightly traced his index down her long glossy sheets that had blessed Arthur with his beautiful golden colour. He didn't see a ring on either of her slender hands.

'They never married?' He asked.

'They were set to. Mother was pregnant with me, second trimester, when my father asked her to retire— and well, that didn't exactly go down well. Mother loved her work, see, and having me gave her the perfect cover. No one expected you to take a life when you were carrying one.'

'Jesus.' Alfred breathed and was reminded that there was a dark ice beneath the woman's stellar beauty. Arthur had told him himself that t Victoria had raised him to be an apprentice to her in her work. Her very dangerous, life threatening work...Seriously, what kind of parent did that to their kid?

'So, naturally, Father was not happy that Mother had no intention of settling. He tried everything to change her mind. Scared that her work would cost them me, he tried to have her incarcerated.'

Alfred's lips made a silent 'O', and Arthur huffed a laugh.

'Yeah. But Mother being Mother, she was already out of the country, arrangements already made for her family to take her to England. She stayed in hiding with my grandmother until I was born.'

Alfred sniffed and scratched his nose. 'On the Duke's Estate,' He finished before his brows drew together, 'you haven't explained how Dylan, Seamus and Allistor come in.'

'My father had had Dylan two years before he met my mother. It was later on when I was twelve that I actually met them and Mother brought them along with us and began training them alongside me.'

'Why leave though? I mean, Victoria isn't their mom.'

'Because it was better than staying with a father that acted as though they didn't exist, being too caught up on the one that got away.' Arthur grimly answered and Alfred pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling the dull ache of an oncoming headache.

Oi.

'Okay. Okay, I think I got most of it. I just have one more question. If you're in hiding from your dad, then why the heck are you using his name? Shouldn't that, like, be a massive flare?'

'It's…complicated,' Arthur rolled the word with his jaw, 'it's like Wang said. By going by 'Kirkland', everyone knows who we are, making it the worst and best protection. Everyone, including my father, knows we are in Terra, however by common knowledge, that means slime like Wang know that my fathers knows. Thus, preventing someone intending to approach for fear of drawing my father's unwanted attention.'

'So basically, the bad guys know, that you know, they know? But— last, last question I swear— how come your dad's just, like, okay with that? Hasn't he been searching for you to take you back?' Alfred puzzled and Arthur crossed his arms.

'Father is intelligent enough to know that it is better to know exactly where we are than to waste resources keeping up with us on the run,' Arthur reasoned and took back his photo album, sparing a second to stare longingly at his mother's face before he shut it and replaced it back in his bedside table draw. He glanced up to the alarm clock on top and gasped.

'Gosh look at the time, Matthew will not be happy that I kept you for so long.'

Guilt bolted through Alfred like touching a live wire and his feet scrambled to for the floor to launch himself off the bed. 'Crap! Matt!' He hissed when he tumbled in confusion when his feet touched a futon laid out alongside the bed.

'Uh?' He looked at Arthur and didn't understand why his cheeks were flushed as he twiddled his thumbs sheepishly.

'Well— yes, rather— I…it's appears that when I sleep near you, my nightmares can't reach me,' The Brit coughed, his face a deep crimson and Alfred's confusion melted with his heart. 'I'm sorry, I just—I rarely sleep well, and—'

'Hey, it's alright. I don't mind.' Alfred reassured and felt his heart quiver like hummingbird when Arthur gave a grateful small nod of thanks.

Hey, if Alfred could do anything to give Arthur a goodnights sleep, then he'd do it without a doubt.

'Matthew.' Arthur reminded and Alfred nodded before he made for a bedroom door and held it open for Arthur.

'My lady.' Alfred smirked, and laughed when Arthur rolled his eyes at the inside joke from their night breaking into N.O.V.A.

'Wanker.'

'You stupid, dumb ass, bag of dicks!' Matthew shrieked as he threw himself at Alfred the second he touched the bottom of the stairs, near staggering the American with his momentum. Alfred let out a soft sigh as he brought his arms up to return the crushing embrace.

'Love you to bro-bro.' He muttered into his twin's tousled locks, and felt Matthew sniff against him before he pulled away to wipe his eyes.

'We could hear everything, but whatever Wang got installed in the Jasmine Dragon's security stopped our audio from coming through on your end,' Seamus piped up from the dining table and nodded over to Dylan on the party sofa, his chestnut head hunched over his laptop as he tapped furiously at the keyboard. 'Dylan's been up all morning trying to figure out what it was and make a mod to override it. Nice to see you up again laddie. Glad to have you properly on board now.'

'Thanks man,' Alfred returned with a nod and glanced at Arthur when he passed him to make for the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water. The action, coming from the guy he'd idolised for so long, feeling weirdly displaced, so domestic. 'My mind's still kinda imploding with it all.'

'Columbia. How are you feeling?' Allistor asked as he stepped out of his med room and joined Arthur over by the sink.

Alfred shrugged. 'Yeah, y'know, alright. Like I said, it's overwhelming.'

'He meant about how your heart stopped beating not even twelve hours ago, Columbia.' Arthur deadpanned with an eye roll and Alfred turned a beetroot red.

'Y-yeah, pfft— Obviously. Um, yeah, I'm good. No weird aches.'

'All the same, later, I'd like to go through an examination with you.' The Scot affirmed and the parental edge of his voice told Alfred that there was no getting out of it.

'I called Germania and filled him in on what happened, but apparently the Jasmine Dragon's already been cleared out. The drugs are gone, the kids Wang was keeping prisoner are gone. The offices were ransacked, and whatever records that could of told us where the missing scientists are being held are gone to.' Matthew grimly informed and Alfred gritted his teeth as he thought back on Ellie and the others. He'd get them home, he'd promised.

'We do, however, do what Wang's next move is,' Arthur nudged as he leant up against the marble kitchen counter. 'Cardverse. He's going to launch 'X' onto the market through his clubs across the districts.'

'So, what's the plan then?' Alfred asked, looking between the brothers.

'We don't have one yet. We were worried about the—you know— you almost dying thing.' Dylan sighed heavily as he shut his laptop, dark bags beneath his eyes.

'Welp! No time like the present.' Alfred quipped, injecting as much optimism into the sentence as he could to (hopefully) gloss over that particular morbid fact, when Arthur loudly cleared his throat.

'Actually, before we get to that, I have an announcement to make, and I am afraid it's not a happy one.' The Brit said heavily with a squared jaw, his fists gripping the counters ledge tight.

'What's wrong lad?' Allistor asked, and Alfred saw Arthur steel himself.

'Hatter's back.'

There was a collective sharp inhale from other Kirklands; all the colour simultaneously drained from their faces.

'No.'

'That can't be—'

'Are you sure Arthur? Are you absolutely sure?' Allistor demanded, and Arthur gave a single nod with a pinched expression.

'He never left. He said he's just been hiding, watching us.'

Alfred's gaze darted between the mirror expressions of horror. 'Yo, is anyone gonna explain who the hell this 'Hatter' is and why everyone's losing their shit over him?'

But the brothers aren't interested in anything Alfred had to say.

'Why didn't you bloody tell us?' Seamus shouted, on his feet looking like he were about to vault over the sofa and start straggling Arthur.

Arthur shook his head. 'Look, I warded the house as soon as I found out. I'm the only one whose Lucid in the house, I'm the only one whose dreams he can appear in. His attention is all on me, I thought if I could just—'

'What? Keep us out of it to protect us? Fuck you.' Dylan swore and Allistor gripped Arthur by the forearm, his grip vicelike.

'How long were you known?' The Scot growled, looming over the younger man.

'After the attack on the University, whilst I was out with my back.' Arthur confessed and his brothers groaned as one.

'How did you find out? I mean, I thought we were all warded.' Dylan demanded.

'He appeared to me in a dream, and he's been haunting them ever since, except when…' Arthur trailed off, and Alfred frowned when he saw Arthur glance at him.

He decided that he was beyond done with being left in the dark.

'Seriously. Who the hell are you talking about?! C'mon, throw me a line here! Is it some Lucid thing?' He yelled and there was a moment of silence before Seamus scoffed.

'Way to put it together Captain Obvious.'

Alfred deliberately stared Arthur down until he sighed in surrender. 'It's rather difficult, but if I had to define Hatter, I would say that he is the personification, or rather, the collective consciousness of the fourth dimension.'

'He's a dream demon. Right up there with Bob from Twin Peaks and the little dorito freak from it's cartoon equivalent. Dylan alternatively offered.

'A complete psychopath that's obsessed with Artie.' Allistor spat, and Alfred's blood ran cold in his veins.

What?

'What?' He repeated aloud, and Arthur cringed.

'I…may of somehow—created, Hatter when I was a child. I was young, I didn't know how to properly control my powers, and to this day I still don't understand how exactly it happened. I don't know if my magic has always been as strong as it is, or if it's because of my connection of Hatter bolstering it. Because he essentially is the fourth dimension, Hatter cannot exist in our world, unless…'

'Unless what?' Matthew tentatively prompted, and Arthur's next words rippled goosebumps down Alfred's spine.

'He possesses someone Lucid,' Arthur answered darkly and fixed them both with a laser-focused look. 'Hatter is beyond anything you could possibly imagine. He's psychotic, cunning, completely deranged with no concept whatsoever of humanity or mercy.'

Alfred stood there, his entire body numb, void. 'And he's after you?,' He asked, though his voice came out so low that he might as well whispered it. Arthur solemnly nodded, and Alfred puffed up his chest, fists clenched. 'I won't let him touch you.'

'My hero,' Arthur replied with a sad smile, making Alfred's heart throb, before he coughed and clapped his hands together. 'there is actually a theory that I'd like to test with you later relating to Hatter, but first, I think we have to decide what we are going to do about Wang.'

'Hold on lad, we can't just—' Allistor protested only to be cut off.

'We can, and we are, Allistor. At this very moment, there is nothing we can do about Hatter. He cannot get to us in this house, and he can only appear to me when I am asleep…maybe not even then when Columbia is in close proxy to me,' Arthur retorted, his snappish tone fading on the last part to make Alfred really curious.

'We have to concentrate on what we can do with the time we have now. And, what we can do right now, is come up with a plan to stop Wang.'

About ten seconds of silence followed after before Dylan broke it with a huff. 'I hate it when you're right.'

The tension uneasily, but surely dissolved as Allistor crossed his arms and rubbed his temples. 'Aye to that. Right, then, you sorry sods. How the hell are we going to stop Wang from launching 'X' across four very spread districts, and find out where he's keeping the kidnapped scientists.'

'Don't forget that the fucker is onto us now with the Jasmine Dragon being cleared out,' Seamus highlighted. 'you two barely got in when they weren't prepared for you.'

An indivisible lightbulb went off above Alfred's head. 'We need more manpower.'

'What are you proposing?' Arthur questioned with his regular scowl and Alfred crossed the floor to take Arthur by his hands.

'We call in the other vigilantes of Terra! Form Voltron, and together kick Wang's ass!' He grinned unable to suppress the excitement at the idea. It'd be something right out of the movies! He and Britannia, rallying the other vigilantes against an evil threat!

'W-what?' The Brit squeaked.

'Teamwork makes the dreamwork! If all of us worked together, I know we could pull it!' Alfred pushed and Arthur shook his head in disbelief.

'You've lost the plot. Say we even did put out a call, what's to say they'd even answer us?'

Alfred gripped Arthur's hands tighter, the same sparkling shine in his eye that children who wished upon stars and believed in Father Christmas possessed; the shine of someone who believed in something with all their heart. 'They will. They will if the Britannia Angel is the one calling.'

'The Britannia Angel wouldn't of gotten very far without Columbia,' Arthur said with no teasing tint and returned Alfred's strong grip. 'and if we're going to do this, it's together, or not at all.'

Alfred faltered, suddenly quite vulnerable. 'But, B…I'm not exactly the most qualified to lead. I—I mean, Oz even said it himself, I haven't been doing this for very long. I'm inexperienced. I'm don't deserve the right to co-lead with you, and that's what they'll all be thinking as well.'

Arthur removed his hands from Alfred to take his face between them, tilting his chin ever-so-slightly down so that their eyes met.

'Now you listen to me, you wonderful, selfless prick. I will not have you in any other place lower than the one you deserve. Blow what the rest think, I cannot think of a more incredible individual that I would rather have at my side as my partner, and my equal.'

Alfred hadn't registered the tears that had built in the corners of his eyes until one broke free to streak down his cheek, the skin beneath the wet trail boiling as his throat closed up; his heart quivering as it tried to keep up with feeling of euphoria that inflated inside him.

This— This was—

It was all he had ever wanted.

It was real, and it was in front of him,

and it was real.

'Thank you.' He croaked as the second tear fell.

Arthur, whose smile outshone the sun, who he had fallen so completely, so wholly for, smiled for him and stretched his thumb to catch the fallen tear.

'Together, or not at all.'

*Sniffs*

I'm not crying.

I'm not crying that Alfred has come within touching distance of loving Britannia/Arthur as he longs to but can't, despite how easy it could be.

I'm not crying because the dream that Alfred's been chasing for forever has come true, a dream that he's bled, and been beaten and died for.

And I'm definitely not crying because these two idiots love each other so so much, and still can't be together.

Alfred. This chapter is the reason in my mind that he is the main protagonist, the true hero of this tale.

High flying emotions and chitchat central in this chapter. A lot of big information bomb dropped and a lot of set up for future chapters! So, so, so hyped to assemble the avengers- I mean vigilantes . It's gonna be epic, returning characters, some new ones that I've hinted at. I can't wait for you all to read it :D

Next chapter, oh ho ho HO. Won't say much else, but expect; the fluffy goodness of a romantic date, more high dosages of emotional angst, an insane Lucid powered throw down and the return of a certain dimensional manic :)

Thank you for reading and I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. If you are liking this story, please consider leaving a review telling me your thoughts, opinions and questions. Once again, thank you for reading and as always,

Until next time folks!