Rivalry

Part 9

Heroes shouldn't run away.

America knew that, but he'd still done it. He'd just run out of England's house without another word, his mind breaking into little tiny pieces as he tried to comprehend what had just happened.

Okay, so England is dating Prussia.

Prussia is dating England.

It sounded messed up no matter what order you put it in. They could not be dating. It was actually starting to irritate him. Why wouldn't Iggy tell him about this if he was dating Prussia? He was practically the guy's only friend.

He wasn't sure why this had upset him so much. So what if Iggy and Prussia were sleeping together?

That instantly brought up some not-so-pleasant mental images. Of Iggy…with Prussia…

He shuddered. The albino bastard was probably a sadistic pervert; he still remembered training under him during the Revolutionary War. Those were not pleasant memories… Maybe Iggy didn't really want to be in a relationship with him but had been trapped due to some sort of event that he wasn't aware of… Maybe he needed a hero to save him! Since he was practically a damsel-in-distress anyway. He was short enough, at least.

He'd made his way back to his hotel room while going through these thoughts in his head and let himself into his room with his key, walking over to his bed and immediately plopping down.

"Hello, Alfred."

And the hero jumped up and screamed like a little girl. "GHOST!"

America was about to go after the ghost and defend himself…or cry and beg for mercy...whichever came first, when he realized that someone was sitting on the other bed watching him.

Someone who looked vaguely familiar.

"I'm Canada," the figure remarked when he recognized the familiar confused expression that he received from almost all of the other nations when he ran into them.

Canada. Canada… Oh! Canada!

"Oh, hi, Mattie!" America responded with a wide grin as he fell back onto his bed and grinned at his easily forgettable brother. "Didn't see you there?"

What a surprise. Canada forced a smile and nodded slightly, pulling his polar bear into his lap. Whose name he couldn't quite remember at the moment.

"Who?"

"I'm Canada."

America rolled over onto his stomach and stared at his brother, wondering what he'd say about the whole 'England' fiasco. "Hey, Mattie. You agree that heroes should always help damsels in distress, right?"

Canada flashed him a look that plainly read that he had no clue where in the world that could have possibly come from and probably didn't want to know. "I suppose…"

"Okay, so let's say that a certain nation—not anybody specific, just a nation—found out that another nation—again, not anybody specific—was going out with somebody that the first nation knew was totally bad news. What should I—I mean, the first nation, do?"

"You mean that you think that somebody's going out with somebody else that they shouldn't and you want to be a hero and make sure that they break up or whatever?"

America pouted. "It was hypothetical."

"Who's going out with someone you don't approve of?" He couldn't imagine which couple America would have a problem with. It wasn't like he was particularly close to most of the nations and the ones that he was close to were basically all single—

"Iggy is dating Prussia."

And the rug had just been yanked out from under his world. He froze in shock, horror flickering over his face as he stared at his brother. "Wha—what?"

America hadn't noticed his brother's shock and was still rambling. "I mean, this is Iggy we're talking about. Why in the world would Iggy be going out with someone like Prussia? I mean, he's creepy. He's got red eyes like those monster alien things from that one show I watched." That had kept him up for three days straight.

"E—eh…" Kumajiro glanced up at his master, who had stopped moving…and blinking…and possibly breathing…

Who was this person again?

"Ah, Alfred, are you sure about this, eh?" Canada questioned once he had managed to regain some semblance of normality. Gilbert was dating England? Since when had this happened?

"I went to Iggy's house earlier and found Prussia sitting in his kitchen. He said that they're been dating for centuries." He snorted and wrinkled his nose slightly. "Seriously, this doesn't make any sense."

"Ma—maybe he was playing a prank?"

America paused, thinking this through, and then nodded once. "Mm, maybe. Except he told me that England had a tattoo."

England had a tattoo?

Canada felt almost as confused about this as America had. But Gilbert had never mentioned that he was dating someone and he'd started to think—

He suddenly stood, his voice much stronger than usual. "We—we could ask someone else. Someone who would know for sure about this."

America looked a little surprised at his brother's sudden remark and how firm he seemed, but then nodded in agreement. "Who?"

"France. He'll definitely know."

A/N: Holy snapdragon! Updates galore today!! (Haha, wanna know why? Cuz I had a paper today that I was procrastinating on by writing chapters of this story. *facepalms at self*)

Oh, Canada… Poor little Canada. You're playing right into France's hands.

Wait, who was I talking about again?

And I love the fact that you can totally tie Prussia into the Revolutionary War. It makes me happy :) Although I only realized that like a couple months ago when rereading one of my historical fiction books and realizing "That's why I kept thinking that I'd heard of Prussia before!!"

Hmm, maybe someday I'll write a Revolutionary War fic…but then again, there are so many that I don't know if I'd be able to think of something original enough… Plus I have an Italian Renaissance one flickering through my head right now (huzzah for reading Machiavelli) and my demise of Rome one…and the unification of Italy. And a bunch others about various historical events… I feel like this summer is going to be a 'let's go to the library and read tons of history books' summer ;D