Alfred woke up to Feliciano urgently shaking him, muttering in Italian far too quickly for Alfred's foggy mind to process. He had plenty of Italian speakers on his lands and could speak the language fine, but English was much better understood when still half-asleep.
"Ngghh….Feli….English, bro. Was' a matter?" He mumbled as he pushed his body into a sitting position, finding his body protesting, especially his arms.
"Yao spotted something in the distance. We think it might be some of the others." The northern Italian said, grasping Alfred's hands and pulling him to follow after him. "We were-a going to try and use your paddle together, but Romano and I can't-a quite do it without hitting one another." He said, Alfred snickering at the image of the two Italians attempting to coordinate their movements to glide the boat over to where Yao wanted to try and steer them.
"Okay, okay, I'm comin'." Alfred said with a yawn as he climbed out onto the deck with Feli, passing a sleeping Kiku. "China get everything workin' on his end without havin' to wake up Japan?" He asked, wondering how long he'd slept and really hoping they'd found a way to contact the others to come pick them up – drifting aimlessly at sea was so much worse than being stranded in his opinion.
"Not exactly…." Feliciano said, his tone not helping build confidence for Alfred in the other's capabilities to reorient themselves. The prospect of having been blown out into the middle of the Pacific Ocean loomed more as a possibility as they continued to rely on the old methods of navigation thanks to blown-out instruments and water-logged phones that weren't picking up signals. But as Alfred picked up the 'paddle' and began to push the boat over to where Romano indicated, he felt a little relieved at the sunny sky.
"'Bout time you woke up lazy bastard." Romano grumbled by way of greeting, Alfred choosing to focus on just pushing his boat instead of replying. "It's been nearly a whole day!" He said with typical exaggerated hand gestures as he spoke.
"Well, more like a couple of hours. The sun should be going down soon." Feliciano commented, causing Alfred to take another look at the sky to confirm for himself the lower position of the sun in the sky. "But the others should find us soon." He said optimistically.
"If I have to hear another comment about the damned potato-bastard coming to the rescue, I swear I'm-a gonna wring your neck." Romano said, earning a squeak from his brother who ducked away from his brother's lunge to run back into the relative safety of the cabin.
Alfred laughed at the two of them, thinking at least there was entertainment with having those two as part of his sailing crew. Their antics continued as Alfred continued to act as the engine, gradually reaching more wreckage.
"Ah, Amerique, over here!" He heard Francis' shout, spotting the Frenchman clinging to what had been a part of someone's boat, a portion of a sail attached. "That laughter couldn't be mistaken for anything else." Francis continued to shout as the boat approached, Romano grumbling to just leave the 'perverted bastard' in the water.
As he got closer, Alfred noticed that there were feet sticking out from under the sail, causing his worry to mount. "Wake up Angleterre. You see, I told you I would keep you safe until help arrived. Look, our boy is here." Francis said, fumbling with the sail with shaking hands, clearly having spent the entire time clinging to their makeshift raft entirely exposed to the sun as he let the Englishman lay under the sail.
"Francis, can you swim over more?" Alfred asked, not sure if he could safely maneuver the boat closer like he'd done for the Italy brothers. "I know you're tired man, but my engine's gone and I don't wanna end up runnin' ya over with the boat." He said, watching as Francis struggled to get closer.
There was movement from under the sail as Arthur apparently woke up, lifting the sail off his face and blinking as the sun reached his eyes. Alfred winced at the blood on the man's forehead, understanding why the two Europeans hadn't been switching out who floated on the raft and feeling surprised at Francis' level of devotion to adhering to his 'big brother' caretaking role he so often spoke of himself as.
"Come on dude, I gotcha." Alfred said, sticking out the paddle for Francis to grab ahold of as soon as he got close enough. So focused on that, neither Alfred nor Francis noticed the fin that broke the surface of the water.
"F-Francis…" Arthur mumbled out as urgently as he could, drawing Alfred's attention to the shark that chose that moment to make its move. The Frenchman turned at the call, hand firmly gripping the paddle as Alfred had begun to pull them to the boat.
Francis gasped as he realized their situation, flinching as the head of the shark became visible, especially the teeth. But before there was the chance for the animal to dart forward quickly to attack the Frenchman, both blonde Europeans felt a splash of water on them as Alfred dove on top of the shark.
"Alfred!" Arthur and Francis called out as both he and the shark disappeared, prompting Romano and Feliciano to come back over to the side of the boat to see what was going on. After what seemed like forever, Arthur called again, tilting his makeshift raft to the point of almost falling into the water as the Italy brothers took over pulling the two men toward the boat.
"No, give me a moment." Arthur said as Francis tried to lift him up onto the deck, sloppily pulling his arm away. "Alfred!" He called out again, searching the water with his eyes, only to lean backwards when Alfred suddenly popped up alongside his raft. "Bloody hell! What was that?!" He yelled, the hold Francis had on him the only thing that saved him from toppling into the water himself. The Frenchman continued to assist Arthur onto the deck, Alfred pushing from behind as he climbed out of the water panting.
"You're…welcome." Alfred said between breaths, "I stopped it from comin' after ya. Y'know...Supposed to...punch them in the nose if it's...that close. It took off after the whallop I gave it." He said, holding his arm and bringing to the others' attention that it was bleeding.
"Oh, Alfredo…." Feliciano said with a sympathetic wince, but Alfred waved off his concern. "It bit you?" The northern Italian asked, eyes open wide at the thought.
"It tried to…" Alfred said with a shaky smile. "Lots of teeth on those things after all. But it's only from…uh…scraping my arm against some of the more exposed teeth when I punched it. I'll be fine. Hero's got this…" He said, showing off his arm to the others. "How're you guys?" He asked as Arthur grabbed his arm to inspect closer, Alfred pulling back and instead touching the British man's head as gently as he could. Arthur couldn't help but flinch in response, releasing Alfred's arm.
"Aside from that lovely head injury and what's sure to be a ghastly sunburn from floating all day out there, I think Angleterre and I are alright." Francis said as he shakily stood up with Feliciano's help. "I kept mon petite lapin covered with the sail for most of the day. He burns so easily." Francis said, satisfied when Arthur scowled at him that the younger personification was well enough to keep up with their usual teasing of each other.
"Where would you be without Big Brother France? Hmmm?" Francis continued, Arthur opening his mouth to reply before merely huffing and not bothering to expend any of his already drained energy on keeping up pretenses. Although he did mutter under his breath shortly afterwards as Alfred helped more or less carry him and Francis below deck.
Kiku was awake by the time the group reached him, eyes widening at the state of the two new passengers before he gasped at seeing Alfred's arm bloody as well. "What happened out there? I heard much yerring…" He said, looking over to Romano when it seemed the others were all otherwise preoccupied with getting everyone settled. The boat only meant for possibly three or four to go on short sailing trips was getting incredibly crowded at this point and by the looks of their host and 'hero', Alfred was getting worn down as well.
"Ugh…a damn shark showed up while we were fishing these two out of the water." Romano grumbled, taking the hand Kiku extended to him as the Japanese man wordlessly asked for help in adjusting his position to make room for the others. "The hero here decided to go wrestle with it while Feli and I pulled them over to the boat." He said before gasping. "The paddle!" He said, taking off back onto the deck.
Kiku heard what sounded like something being dragged above him, his conclusion that the southern Italian was pulling their only means of movement back onto the deck from where they'd left it dangling over the side confirmed as Romano came back panting a little.
"Everything alright down here?" Yao's voice called out, the man following shortly afterward and looking into the crowded area. "Aiya. If there are any more people, we are going to tip over!" He said as he looked over the two additional members of their group.
"Hello to you China." Arthur said, accepting a bottle of water from Alfred as Feliciano began to again bring out the first aid kit. In response the Chinese man gave a short wave to greet the British and French personifications.
"How badly are you all hurt? I watch whole thing from window." He said, looking on in concern. "And what did you do to your arm America-aru?" He asked, eyeing the way Alfred continued to hold his upper arm tightly to try and stop the bleeding. "Aiya. So much for you continuing to row the boat." He said, shuffling between where Kiku sat and Romano stood to get closer to the new arrivals and the American.
"Ugh…" Romano moaned as he ended up having to cram himself against the side of the cabin. Alfred laughed at his grumpy face before a brief flicker of pain passed over his face.
"Nah, don't worry Yao. Give me some time and I'll be back to saving us soon enough." Alfred said, putting on his trademark Hollywood smile and using all the drama of Broadway to try and seem convincingly confident to put the others at ease. "But I'm with you on the whole overcrowded thing. I'm gonna head up with you and avoid playin' twister with everybody." He said, looking over once more to where Arthur and Francis lay on the small bed as they rested. Yao sighed but nodded anyway, leading the way back up to where the steering wheel and instruments were located.
"It will be night soon. Maybe then I can find us a way back to land by using the stars." Yao said as he helped bandage Alfred's arm, sending a sympathetic smile to the younger boy as he struggled to take care of himself with one hand. "You are doing well, America. I…thank you for helping us." He said, the American giving a small smile in return.
"Of course! That's what heroes do!" Alfred said, sitting down on the floor with a heavy sigh to rest. He may have gotten in a few hours earlier, but after pulling a stunt even Australia would've called risky, he was feeling completely exhausted and starving. His stomach growled to alert him to that as though he may have forgotten, Yao arching a brow at that in amusement.
"Stay here. I will go get something for us." He said with a chuckle. "Assuming you have enough food for us all. But then again, this is you we are talking about." He said, earning an eye roll from Alfred despite both knowing that food was going to be an issue very soon – especially if navigation remained a concern and Alfred's arm put them at the complete mercy of wherever the waves wanted to bring the boat.