Author's Notes: Haha, I'm back! And I have great news! I have a beta for this story. Capt. Hasting has kindly offered to improve the quality of these chapters so you can expect a lot of improvement. :D
Disclaimer: I don't own Axis Powers: Hetalia.
Tony (New Jersey) belongs to Not So L33t.
Charlotte (Vermont) belongs to beatles-revelution1204.
Daniel/Dan (Maine) belongs to Capt. Hasting.
"Are you kidding me? How long have you known this?"
Tony winced as the voice on the other line raised a couple octaves. Maine's usually quiet temper had decided to join their phone conversation and was certainly making the task of telling Dan about their father more difficult than it needed to be.
"Calm down, Dan. I'm not kidding. Two months." Tony said with a sigh. This was not going the way he hoped it would.
"Two months? You waited two months to tell me this?"
"Casey made us. The Original Thirteen had to be the first to know…sorry" he finished lamely. There was no easy way to describe the situation. He wished Maine could be as agreeable as Vermont.
It hadn't been easy to tell her but she had handled it better than Maine was. Charlotte had listened quietly, not even asking a question. He got the feeling she had known something was going on.
When he and Will had walked inside, the younger of the two tried to hide his tears and put on a brave face. He hadn't let go of Tony though. It had been a hard thing for New Jersey to see. He wasn't used to being the mature one. Charlotte had noticed right away that something was wrong, despite William's protests that he had tripped outside and that was the reason for him leaning on Tony. He had even tried to smile for his younger sister but it didn't last. He broke down again as soon as Tony began telling Vermont what had happened. It had surprised her to see her tough, older brother showing any weakness.
Now she was consoling him. His sobs had finally reduced down to hiccups and sniffles yet she refused to leave his side. Tony, on the other hand, had immediately gone to deal with the task of telling Maine what was going on. A phone call wasn't his ideal means of communicating the news but he saw no other way of letting Dan know as soon as possible.
"Sorry doesn't fix this Tony! Dad has been missing for two months and I had no idea!"
Daniel had moved on from just being angry to shouting down the phone. William and Charlotte looked up from their spot the couch when they heard his voice. Tony offered them a thumbs up before returning to his conversation.
"Don't be so loud. New Hampshire and Vermont can hear you." he hissed into the receiver. Dan immediately went silent.
"They're still with you?" He asked quietly.
"Yea, and Will isn't taking all this very well."
"What about Charlotte?"
"She seems fine but she might be putting on an act."
"I see... I'll be over tomorrow."
With that he hung up. Tony blew air out his nostrils slowly, trying to find some source of sanity in all the confusion.
He found nothing.
He had no idea how they were going to handle everything. He knew that New Hampshire's breakdown would only be the first of many and that most, if not all of the younger states would be just as troubled as he was by the news of their father's disappearance.
Glancing at the clock on his cellphone, Tony tried to grin and turned to his younger siblings.
"You guys wanna go out for dinner? I have a lotta great diners. After all, I am the diner capital of the world."
Connecticut looked at New Hampshire who offered a small smile and nodded.
"Sure." she said softly.
"Alright! Let's go!"
He grabbed his keys and headed toward the garage. His siblings trailed behind him, clutching each other's hands. Charlotte was smiling and trying to make William laugh by telling him jokes. They weren't particularly funny but they still brought a smile to his face. It was more the effort than anything else that counted; after being upset like that, they all wanted nothing more than to smile over the stupid things again.
Unfortunately she ran out half way through the trip and an uneasy silence fell upon the three of them. Quickly Tony clicked on the car radio but could only find unfittingly cheerful summer songs, taunting and reminding them of just how grim their own lives had could hardly believe it was summer already. It didn't feel like it was. The rain that had begun to fall on windshield didn't help. Perhaps Mother Nature knew something about Alfred's absence that they did not. Finding nothing suitable to listen to, Tony clicked the radio off and the rest of the trip was continued in silence.
Tony pulled into the parking lot at one of his favorite diners. The food was always great and the head waitress had a soft spot for him which meant he usually got a discount. The trio rushed inside and was seated shortly after. Their dinner was eaten with little small talk and they were back in the car in less than forty-five minutes. The drive back paralleled the ride there.
Once they were home they said goodnight quietly and went their separate ways. New Jersey gratefully crawled into bed. The day had felt so much longer than it had actually been. Lil' Devil jumped up onto the bed and snuggled down under the covers next to him. Tony scratched the animal behind the earls absent mindedly. His thoughts were elsewhere.
There was so much they were going to have to worry about now. Casey would eventually have to tell the president about what was going on and there was also the matter of telling all the other states. He was sure the capital had assigned the twelve others to deal with that. He was relieved that he had only had to tell Vermont and Maine about what had happened. That had been hard enough and he didn't think he could handle telling any others.
After all of that had been taken care of it would be time to start searching for Alfred. He was probably (definitely, New Jersey corrected himself) still alive and it was crucial that they found him as soon as possible. Things were going to get wildly out of hand without Alfred around and the sooner he was back, the better. Tony had heard rumors of countries breaking into civil wars when their representation was gone for too long. It had been hundreds of years since anything like this had happened anywhere.
Slowly, Tony slipped away into his dreams. He was running, always running. The terrifying part was when he turned to see what he was running from and was met with his own dark, twisted face.
Daniel Jones stared at the lump under the covers and glanced at his watch. It was ten o'clock, time for New Jersey to wake up. After finishing his conversation with Tony, Maine had booked himself a flight as soon as he could and had arrived early this morning. He had let himself into Tony's house using the spare key which was stupidly hidden under the door mat (something that Maine always chastised him for.).
It had still been rather early so he sank into a comfortable arm chair and began to read the morning addition of the New York Times waiting for his older siblings to wake up.
About an hour after his arrival New Hampshire had stumbled down the stairs, looking like hell, in Dan's opinion. His normally well groomed hair was all over the place while his blue eyes were puffy and red. William looked so much weaker than Maine ever remembered seeing him.
New Hampshire staggered toward the kitchen, apparently unaware of his brother's presence. Dan decided not to bother him so he continued to read listening to the small state preparing his breakfast until, suddenly, everything went silent. Dan paused and lowered the news paper, he recalled the conversation with Tony from earlier; Will hadn't taken the news very well which caused Maine to be concerned for his brother and only neighbor. Folding the paper Maine stood up from his seat and walked towards the kitchen.
"Will, you alright?" he asked. When no response came Dan rushed into the kitchen and saw William staring down at his hands in fascination.
"What's going on?"
The dumbfounded state looked over at him but didn't really seem to make the connection between the voice he had just heard and the person next to him. His blue eyes were dull and glazed over. He held up his hand and Dan gasped in shock.
"Look." William said quietly. Across his palm was a long, deep gash. Blood poured out of the wound which looked very painful but didn't seem to evoke a reaction in New Hampshire.
"What happened?"
When he didn't answer Dan began to reach forward to examine the cut but stopped when William began to back away from him.
"Let me help you, William. Please." His voice didn't sound as strong as he would have liked. He had always been one of the more mature states but he had a great deal of respect for the states older than him and felt ridiculous trying to tell New Hampshire what to do.
"I want to have breakfast first." he murmured, motioning to a half cut up pear that was taking up residence on a cutting board on the counter. Next to it sat a knife which showed trace amounts of blood.
Dan was still concerned by the blood that covered William's hand and was now rushing down his wrist. The owner of said wrist was staring intently at the blood with a somber expression on his face. He couldn't let this keep going on.
Keeping his eyes on Will, he slowly went over to the sink and turned on the water. Then Dan lunged for his brothers damaged hand and dragged him over to the sink. William let out a yelp and struggled against his brother's hold. Dan only tightened his grip around Will's wrist and forced his hand under the cold water running from the faucet.
The shock of water seemed to knock New Hampshire out of his daze. He blinked and turned to look at Maine. His dreary eyes were now as lively as they had ever been.
"When did you get here, Dan?"
"What are you talking about? Don't you remember?"
"No…what are you doing? W-what happened to my hand? Ow! It hurts! Dan! My hand! What happened?" The shorter state was now near tears and was obviously confused. Maine grimaced and began to wash the cut out with soap. William tried to pull his arm back but Dan wasn't about to let go.
"That stings! Stop!"
"You cut your hand while you were chopping up fruit. I need to clean it out."
William only whimpered as Dan continued to wash the gash. It wouldn't stop bleeding which proved to him that the wound was much deeper than he had originally though.
"Can you move your fingers?"
"A little but it hurts."
With his free hand, Dan opened the cupboard closest to the sink and found all of Tony's medical supplies. He had no idea why his older brother liked to store his medicine in the kitchen rather than the bathroom but he was very grateful for that particular quirk. He got out a long bandage and some gauze.
Dan pulled William's hand from the water and quickly bandaged it up. New Hampshire bit his lip from the pain but managed to keep his hand still.
"Am I going to have to get stitches?" Will asked.
"I doubt it. This is a pretty bad cut but I think it'll be ok now."
"I wonder how I did it."
"I just told you. You were cutting fruit and you must have accidentally sliced open your hand."
"It's weird because this is my writing hand. I would have been holding the knife with this hand."
"Don't you remember anything about what happened?"
"No. Guess the shock must have messed up my memory a little."
Dan frowned but didn't say anything. Shock didn't explain William's behavior earlier. He also considered what he had just been told, if that was his writing hand it would have been really difficult for him to accidentally cut himself.
Dan went over to the sink and hastily washed the blood off the knife before beginning to chop up the pear. As he did he shot a couple of glances at his distressed brother, who watched him intently.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
Maine shook himself out of his thoughts and quickly looked to the ground. He hadn't meant to be so obvious.
"Like what?" he asked, trying to force a smile onto his face.
L-like I'm so kind of…freak! What did I do?"
The tears that had been threatening to spill earlier were now rushing down Will's cheeks. Dan wanted to comfort him but couldn't move; he was frozen in place. There was something very wrong about what had just taken place. This wasn't normal behavior for his normally cheerful brother.
"I've told you already. The answer is the same."
He finished cutting up the pear and went back to the sink rinsed off the knife and put it away.
William glared at Dan.
"Don't lie to me!" he demanded, "There's something wrong with me, isn't there?"
"Will? Dan? When did you get here?"
Both boys looked at the doorway to the kitchen. Vermont yawned while rubbing at her eyes. Dan had never been so happy to see the brown haired girl.
"Good morning, Charlotte. I just got in this morning. How are you?"
"I've been better." She smiled sadly before walking into the kitchen. Her pale hand reached out and grabbed a few pear slices off the counter.
"Nice of you to get breakfast ready." Charlotte said as she sat down at the table. Dan hoped that her appearance would stop New Hampshire from questioning him about what had occurred earlier that morning. If he was lucky, William might just forget about the whole thing.
"This isn't over" Will muttered into Dan's ear before stalking out of the kitchen and back upstairs.
Apparently, luck wasn't on his side.
"Where's he going?" inquired Charlotte.
"He just went to get dressed."
"Usually he says good morning though."
"Yeah... He…uh…cut his hand on accident earlier. It was pretty bad. I cleaned it up for him but it was painful so he's not in a good mood."
Dan was surprised at how easy the lie had slipped out. If there was one person he could trust with the details of what had really happened, it was Charlotte. Again, something was stopping him from revealing exactly what had occurred less than fifteen minutes ago.
A quick check of his watch told Dan that it was time he talked to Tony. He politely excused himself and snuck upstairs.
That was where he was now, watching the third oldest state, who had buried himself under layers of covers and was snoring lightly. A tuff of brown hair and a tanned arm were the only parts of Tony that were visible. Dan bent down and prodded the arm roughly. He was tired of waiting around for the lazy state to wake up.
Much to his surprise the arm wrapped itself around his neck and pulled him close. Dan's face was pushed up against Tony's chest. He struggled but couldn't get out of the older state's vice-like hold.
"What the f—"
"Now, now Mrs. Kennedy. I know you're upset but I will make you happy." New Jersey mumbled in his sleep.
Maine stopped trying to fight off Tony and had to bite his lip to stop from laughing. He and the other states had always suspected New Jersey had a little crush on the former first lady and now he could confirm it. That was, if he escaped alive.
"That's better Mrs. Kennedy. I'll look after you."
This was Dan's chance to have a little fun. Despite their rather bleak situation over-all, he had to make the most of an opportunity like this.
"I'm not Mrs. Kennedy." he squeaked out, trying to keep his voice at a higher pitch.
"Then who are you?"
This would be the best part.
"I'm Snooki!"
At that New Jersey released his hold and bolted up in bed, blue eyes wide. He wore a look of pure terror and glanced around his room trying to find the annoying girl. All he saw was Dan rolling around on the floor, laughing so hard that tears ran down his face.
"Dan? Dude! You would not believe the dream I just had!"
The only response he received was more laughter as Dan replayed the scene from earlier over and over again in his mind. Every time he seemed to stop laughing the image of Tony's scared face would pop back into his mind and cause him to start cracking up again.
"Was I sleep talking again?"
"Yes." That one word was all he could choke out. Maine tried to get a hold of himself and eventually managed to reduce his amusement to the occasional snicker.
"Are you gonna tell me what I was talking about?"
Dan snorted and stood up.
"Nope."
"Fine. I don't care. Why are you up here?"
All feelings of delight died off as Dan remembered why he had barged into Tony's room in the first place. He had to tell him about New Hampshire. Tony wasn't known for his mature, serious attitude but Dan was hoping that he would prove himself to be the older brother he really was.
"It's New Hampshire."
"Poor kid. He still crying?"
"No, worse."
Tony's smile, which rarely left his face, evaporated and a grave look replaced it.
"What happened?"
"Something's wrong with him."
"What do you mean?" Something dangerous flashed in the eyes of the older state.
"I mean, something isn't right up…up here." Dan tapped the side of his head.
Tony let out a sigh and flopped back down onto the pillows.
"And so it begins."
AN: So I thought I should explain that this is sort of an AU since I had the oil spill being solved in the spring. There was something else that was inconsistent with the real world but I can't remember it right now. Hope you liked it!