A/N: This is probably one of the most important chapters of this whole story. It is definitely the most important thus far.
This chapter only has one point of view, up until the end where we get literally every single person in the main group. And you meet Francis's girlfriend here~
Remember: I don't own Hetalia.
Arthur pushed through the crowds of students waiting to go to the dance, looking for his friends. The day had crawled by, the only entertaining events had been his incredible success at scaring Alfred (who knew all it took was hanging a creepy ghost in their doorway to reduce the blond American to tears, which Arthur actually felt sort of bad about), and the attempts they had made flirting with each other. Finally, finally, he would be able to go out and trick or treat!
He walked past Toris and Feliks, Tino and Berwald and Lukas and Matthias and Emil (Matthias had started calling their group The Nordics because they were all from Scandinavian countries, and all were dressed as Vikings together), Yao Wang and Ivan Braginsky (Ivan had his two followers standing behind him and was glowering darkly at Toris for some reason), and several other people he recognized, before he finally saw Alfred's red white and blue costume. He got to his friends and winked at Alfred in a lazy attempt to make him blush, and said, "So, are we going now?"
Francis shook his head, his blond hair waving under his crown, "I forgot to tell you all, but I have invited my girlfriend to come for a visit, and Elizabeta agreed to let her stay in her room, but we must wait for her."
Matthew nodded and said, "Of course, but what is her name? You haven't told me much about her, just that she has cancer and is in a wheelchair."
"Her name is Joan," Francis said, and Arthur was shocked by how seriously in love the frog looked. He had never imagined that Francis was actually in love with anybody ever.
They stood around for fifteen minutes, keeping a look out for a girl in a wheelchair. Finally, Francis gasped and ran to a girl, sitting in a wheelchair with blond hair pulled up into a bun, with little curls sticking out around her face. Arthur was surprised, she didn't look like the type of person Francis would go after, he was always so flashy, and, though Joan was very pretty, she was not dressed in anything fancy, and had little or no makeup on her face, and looked like the ideal of dressing modestly.
Francis, after talking to her in French for a few minutes, carefully wheeled her over to the group. "Salut, I am Joan, and Francis says you are his friends. It is nice to meet all of you," she said in a soft French accent.
"Hello~ it is nice to meet you! I am Feliciano Vargas! This is Lovino, my fratello, the one dressed as a spy, and Luddy, my boyfriend, who is the cutest puppy ever!" Feliciano gestured at the two people next to him.
Arthur stuck out his hand, formally. "I am Arthur Kirkland, it is very nice to meet you." Joan smiled, and shook his hand gently, her hand shaking slightly.
"Yo! I am Alfred, and this is my cousin, Matthew, and he can speak French too!"
"It is nice to see you again, Joan," Antonio said, since he and Gilbert already knew her.
Kiku smiled slightly and said, "Herro. I am Kiku Honda, and this is Heracles-san."
She listened politely to all of their introductions, until they had all gone and she said, "Francis told me all about you, and I am so glad to finally be able to put a face to the name! I-" she broke off, her shoulders shaking as she was hit silent coughing fit.
Francis rushed over to her and whispered to her, mostly in French, though it was obvious he was asking if she was okay and if she needed water or anything. Finally, Joan stopped coughing, and, after taking a few deep breathes said, much quieter than before, though her voice still sounded reasonably strong, "I am fine. We can go get dinner and then go trick or treating now."
They decided not to argue, so walked out of the school and went to a nearby pizza place, where they ordered their pizza before sitting together at a nearby booth. When the pizza came, Arthur wasn't very surprised when Lovino started complaining. "Damn British people, ruining perfectly good Italian food, that always tastes fucking perfect and turning it into shit," he said, glaring at the pizza sitting on his plate.
However, they all ate the pizza, though it looked like every bite was causing the oldest Italian physical pain, and after finishing stood up and paid, leaving with Elizabeta in the lead.
They walked for three hours, walking up to doors and getting candy, only having issues when Heracles almost fell asleep and Kiku had to wake him up, and when Gilbert tried to take over being the leader, making Elizabeta hitting him with a frying pan, which was her strange substitute for a knight's sword. Arthur and Alfred also continued their blushing game, even though they were both horrible at it, Alfred being awkward and Arthur having horrible pick-up lines.
They got back to the school at exactly nine, just before they would be considered late, weighed down with candy and pretty tired.
The dance was still going, so Alfred suggested they ditched their candy in their rooms and go and join in. This actually was a pretty decent idea, so they left and came back in ten minutes, meeting outside the gym, where they could hear the music and talking and dancing. Some of them (Arthur, Lovino, Kiku, Ludwig, Matthew, and Joan, for example) were nervously shifting from foot to foot (well, Joan was just shifting in her chair and rolling back and forth), since they weren't the most social people, but everybody else looked excited, except Heracles who, as always, looked like he was bored and tired.
Then they walked in, and all looked surprised. There was not as many students as at the beginning, that was obvious, but it still was at least fifty students dancing or standing off to the sides, almost all in costumes, and then the decorations were all typical Halloween things, but the impressive thing was a giant six meter tall clay pumpkin statue in the middle of the room formed so carefully that you could pretty much see every detail of it. One thing that had stopped them was when they saw the sign attached to it: Clay Pumpkin, by Feliciano Vargas.
Then everyone, even Arthur and Kiku started congratulating Feliciano for how great his statue looked and asking why Feli hadn't told them about it.
After they'd calmed down, they spread out across the floor to start dancing. Arthur decided to just watch, after all, dancing wasn't his thing, and checked to see where his friends were.
Gilbert, Matthew, and Elizabeta were dancing together off to the side, Gilbert attempting to break dance (even if it wasn't that kind of song AT ALL), Matthew and Elizabeta were laughing at him. Kiku and Heracles were standing off to the side together, talking quietly. Feliciano was doing this weird really spazzy looking dance that looked sort of like an alien mating dance, while Ludwig was awkwardly shuffling next to him. Antonio and Lovino were dancing together, and Lovino was surprisingly good. Francis was sitting next to Joan on a bench, talking and eating together, smiling in a pleasant way Arthur had never seen on him. And Alfred... Where was Alfred? Arthur glanced around, trying to look for Alfred's blond hair and shining sky blue eyes.
Arthur was starting to feel nervous, when finally he heard a, "Um, hey, Artie?"
He whirled around to see Alfred shifting nervously, "Where the hell were you? I was vaguely concerned (this was as close to 'I was worried' that Arthur would allow himself to go)!"
Alfred shrugged and said, practically shaking, "do you, maybe, want to dance? With me?"
Arthur blinked at the blushing American. "First of all, I won the blushing contest, so your plan definitely backfired." This had to be a joke.
Alfred tilted his head. "What plan? Could you please dance with me?"
Arthur started blushing as he realized it wasn't a joke. "Ah, okay." He took the American's hand and stood up, and they walked to the center of the floor.
The first few songs they were shaky and nervous. Right up until a song came on that they both really liked, and of course they would play it because of Halloween.
The opening music for 'Thriller' came on, and both of their faces lit up. They grinned at each other, forgetting the previous discomfort. Then they started dancing in perfect sync to the song, dancing until the next one came on and they were out of breath.
Arthur looked over at Alfred and Alfred looked back. They were both smiling and breathing heavily. It was the first time someone had ever really smiled AT Arthur. He suddenly stopped smiling and said, "No one ever has smiled at me before. Why does no one ever feel happy around me? Why does everyone hate me?"
Alfred's smile dropped too. "I don't hate you. Why should I?"
"Because," Arthur said, his eyes tearing up, " I am always so mean to you and pushing you away, why should you like me? It's just because I have a crush on you, and I am really bad at showing my emotions, and-"
Alfred blinked, shocked, and then half smiled, forgetting that Arthur was crying, and was reminded when he noticed the first tears sliding down his face, and then grabbed Arthur's arm and forced him to look up at him. "I promise, I definitely don't hate you. In fact, I really really like you, and I think you are cute when you are angry. I like you, I swear."
Arthur had tears pouring down his face now. "Prove it!" He said, waiting for Alfred to say that he couldn't, certain that he would.
Alfred instead took a step closer to him. And closer. And then Alfred pressed his lips up against Arthur's. They kissed for a minute before Arthur pulled away and smiled. "America, I-" he stopped and slammed his hand over his mouth, his head pounding, images flashing through him. He looked at Alfred, and turned around and ran, his brain stopping and He couldn't think properly.
He got back to his room and sank onto his bed, the images washing over him. Arthur screamed, right up until he literally passed out on his bed.
Feliciano was in bed when he felt the the memories seeping into his brain, and he cried, because he remembered everything from his earlier life. Including the Holy Roman Empire.
Matthew collapsed onto his bed the moment he had the memories, unable to move while absorbing them all.
Lovino screamed when he felt them (it is very painful having memories forced into you), and wouldn't move from where he was standing, until Antonio, who had tears running down his face, hugged him and carried him back to their room and setting him on his bed, where they both fell, still hugging.
Francis shivered and whimpered in his bed, not wanting to move, and gasping in pain. He saw hundreds of years of wars flashing through his head, and felt the death of millions of soldiers falling on him.
Ludwig felt the headache and tried his hardest to ignore the pain as long as he could. When he couldn't he sat down and allowed them to absorb into his brain.
Gilbert was sad. He knew that the images were his memories, and they were not very good. He was surprised he was still alive.
Kiku curled up on his bed, tears spilling from his eyes, his normal empathy destroyed by his memories of everything that had happened in the past. It hurt.
Alfred had chased after Arthur, trying to catch up with him, until he got to the room that they shared. He saw Arthur passed out on his bed and was about to walk over when a headache exploded in his head and he just barely made it to his bed before finding himself unable to move, the thoughts paralyzing him.
A/N: Salut- French, informal greeting
This might not be the best time to say this... but I will have some trouble writing anything for a couple days. I swear, I am going to try, but my extended family is meeting up for a while, and I am expected to actually socialize. I am so sorry!
I am in a wacky mood right now, so I decided to have a blooper for this chapter:
Arthur had tears pouring down his face now. "Prove it!" He said, waiting for Alfred to say that he couldn't, certain that he would.
Alfred instead took a step closer to him. And closer. And then Alfred pressed his lips up against Arthur's.
Kiku and Elizabeta jumped out of nowhere, taking hundreds of pictures, and Kiku yelled, "Fuck, yes! UsUk action happening here!"
Alfred and Arthur broke apart, frowning at Kiku and Arthur asked, "What the bloody hell is UsUk?"
Kiku laughed maniacally, in a way that could only be described as fangirlishly and answered, "Only my life!" And took a final picture before dashing off with Elizabeta.
My brain is messed up.
Anyways, I have set up a poll on my profile over if it should be PruHun or PruCan or some other pairing in this fic, so I would love for you all to vote, because I really cannot decide!
And please review! Reviews give me more motivation to write more, and suggestions are always welcome! Also, I decided that everyone who reviews this chapter can tell me one word that I have to put in the next chapter.
Thank you for reading! Hope I can update soon!