Chapter 7
Alfred dragged his feet as the hot sun beat down on his. He didn't know where he was, but it didn't matter since he was out of America now. He wasn't planning to go anywhere, but he could feel his body shutting down. He was hungry, thirsty, and his heart ached with guilt and pain. Eventually, his vision went blurry and he collapsed in the middle of nowhere.
Sleep overcame him, hoping that he could just die here and join his father. He lay there unmoving until vultures began to circle him. The vultures landed and surrounded the unmoving boy, ready to begin their meal, until,
"CHAAAAAARGE!" Two blonde men ran towards the group of vultures and hit them away.
"Get out of here! Go on!" They yelled as the large birds flew away in fright.
They laughed as they flew away, "It gets them every time!" the man with glasses laughed, with his Estonian accent.
The other man (who was a bit feminine looking) knelt in front of the figure that the vultures were about to eat and noticed the shallow rise and fall of his chest, "Uh- oh! You'd better come look at this Eduard, I think this one's still alive!" he said with a thick Finnish accent.
Eduard walked over and knelt next his friend. He rolled the figure onto his back, "It's just a kid; he must be dehydrated." Eduard said.
"Can we take him with us?" the other man asked.
Eduard looked up in shock, "What? We can't just keep some random kid we find here Tino!" he said.
"But he's a cute little boy, and he's all alone!" Tino protested.
"What if he's a Leader? When he grows up, he'll kill us!" Eduard argued.
"But if we keep him with us, he'll be our friend! Pleeeeaaaaase Eduard?" Tino pleaded with big eyes.
Eduard groaned, he could never say no to Tino's puppy eyes. The more he thought about what Tino said, it sounded possible; that and he was starting to feel sorry for the boy.
Eduard sighed, "Alright, let's get him into some shade so we can give him water."
Tino nodded eagerly and carefully picked up the boy in his arms. They walked for a while until they found a small patch of grass and a small pool of fresh water that was shaded by a large tree. Tino carefully laid the boy down in the grass and held his head in his lap so they could give him some water. Alfred felt the cool water run down his throat and his eyes fluttered open to look at the worried faces of two men.
"Are you okay?" Eduard asked.
"I guess so," Alfred said with a scratchy voice, sitting up on his own.
"You nearly died!" Tino said.
Eduard nodded, "We found you lying on the ground with the vultures."
"Thanks for your help." Alfred said and he got up and began to walk away.
"Where are you going?" Eduard asked.
"Nowhere," Alfred answered, still walking. Tino and Eduard looked at each other with worried faces and caught up to him.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Tino asked.
"Where are you from?" Eduard asked.
"Who cares, I can't go back." Alfred said and started to walk away again, but Eduard stopped him, "You're an outcast? So are we!" he said smiling.
"What did you do?" Tino asked.
"Something terrible," Alfred said looking at the ground, "but I don't wanna talk about it."
Eduard nodded, "Alright, well you don't have to tell us."
"Is there anything we can do?" Tino asked.
Alfred shook his head, "Not unless you can change the past."
Tino smiled, "You know, it's during times like this when Eduard here says: you've got to put your behind in your past." (I had to...)
Alfred looked confused and Eduard face-palmed, "No no, you imbecile!" He then knelt down and put his hand on Alfred's shoulder, "What he meant was: you've got to put your past behind you. Look, bad things happen and there's nothing you can do about it right?"
"Right,"
"Wrong!" Eduard said suddenly pointing between the boy's eyes, "When the world turns it back on you, you turn your back on the world!"
Alfred frowned, "That's not what was I was taught,"
Eduard smiled, "Well, then maybe you need a new lesson; repeat after me: hakuna matata."
"What?" Alfred asked squinting.
"Hakuna matata!" Tino repeated, "It means no worries!"
E: Hakuna Matata! What a wonderful phrase!
T: Hakuna Matata! Ain't no passing craze!
E: It means no worries for the rest of your days
Both: It's our problem-free philosophy!
E: Hakuna Matata
"Hakuna Matata?" Alfred asked.
Tino nodded, "It's our motto!"
"What's a motto?" Alfred asked.
"Nothing, what's a motto with you?" Eduard joked and he and Tino laughed.
"Those two words will solve all your problems! I used to be the Leader of Finland and Eduard used to be the Leader of Estonia. We were very close, but then we both were banished because we made the Leader of Sweden fall into a pile of-"
"Tino! You're talking to a kid you know!" Eduard said, cutting him off.
Tino's eyes widened, "Oh! Sorry!" he said leaving Alfred more confused.
E&T: Hakuna Matata! What a wonderful phrase! Hakuna Matata! Ain't no passing craze!
A: It means no worries, for the rest of your days! (E: Sing it kid!)
A&E: It's our problem-free!
T: Philosophy!
All: Hakuna Matata!
Eduard and Tino brought Alfred to a small hill and showed him a vast but beautiful jungle, "Welcome to our humble home!" Eduard said.
Alfred's eyes grew large at the sight, "You live here?" he asked in amazement.
"We live wherever we want!" Tino said.
Alfred felt hope and happiness for the first time in his heart, "It's beautiful," he breathed.
He followed Tino and Eduard through the jungle when he realized how hungry he was, "What do you eat around here? I'm so hungry I could eat a hundred hamburgers!" he said.
"Well, I don't know about hamburgers, but there's a lot of fruit around here and- hey, look Eduard!" Tino cried pointing to a large moss covered log.
Eduard went over to it, "I think we just found some grub!" he said and lifted the log, revealing millions of slimy bugs crawling underneath. Eduard reached in a picked up a large brown beetle.
Alfred made a face, "Ew! What's that?" he asked.
"A beetle, what does it look like?" Eduard asked, biting off its head.
"Ewwwwww! That's disgusting!" Alfred cried.
"That's what we thought at first, but you can't just eat fruit every single day." Eduard said.
"Their disgusting, yet satisfying; but you learn to like them." Tino added.
Alfred hesitantly picked up a brown beetle, "Oh well, hakuna matata," he said. He closed his eyes and swallowed the beetle whole. It was slimy and almost made him gag but, "Disgusting…yet satisfying." Alfred said slowly, smiling.
Tino and Eduard nodded, "That's it."
From that day on, Alfred lived in the jungle with Eduard and Tino. He learned how to live their ways in the wild. Alfred mostly stuck to eating fruit, only eating beetles when he couldn't stand to look at another banana. Tino and Eduard treated Alfred like their little brother, teaching him new things and watching out for him as he grew. As days passed, Alfred began to forget about his guilt for his father's death, and just tried to enjoy life.
Eventually, 11 years came and went and Alfred was now 21. He had grown much taller and muscular that Eduard or Tino and he now wore a pair of glasses (Don't ask where he got them, things like this just happen in the Hetalia world ya know). His hair stayed the same dirty blond color with the certain strand sticking up. But of course, he still stuck to the same motto that Eduard and Tino had taught him.
A: It means no worries! For the rest of your days!
All: It's our problem-free philosophy! Hakuna Matata! Hakuna Matata! Hakuna Matata! Hakuna Matata!
T: I say Hakuna!
E: I say Matata!
Hakuna Matata!
AN: Yep! Finland and Estonia are Timon and Pumba, cause they're BFFs in Hetaia! Also I think they're kinda cute together!
Yeah...I'm not particularly proud of this chappie...mostly because I made them eat bugs...but it was short.
As for the song, I stuck with the broadway version, and I cut half of it because I couldn't really think of a way to change it, but I added in SOME kind of backstory at least...