Author's Note- Hey everyone. I have some good news and some bad news. First the bad, this story is almost over. There are only two more chapters and an epilogue left all of which are currently in the editing phase. On a happier note I finally figured out what story to post next. The next story which I am posting is entitled Into the Coldest Night and the prologue is currently up. It is another Cold War fiction so I hope you will end up enjoying it. Well onto the shot outs. Thank you so much to Alferd F jones, Fluffy's Lady, Warrior of Sangre, Sesi Braginskaya, and The NSIGirl. Also a very special shout out to this stories awesome beta, thank you Pruhana for taking time out of your busy schedule to edit this piece.

Disclaimer- I do not own Hetalia, and I have never been to England or Italy.

Chapter 17- Jet Setting

America was still fuming when their plane landed in Virginia, but he didn't have time to let his feelings cool. He made promises at the U.N. meeting and he wasn't going to allow the fact he had just been embarrassed in front of the entire world assembly two days before slow him down. So as soon as America was home he sat Alaska down on the bed and started opening dresser drawers.

"What are you doing?"

"Packing your stuff." America glanced up at his confused state as he continued to stuff her sparse belongings into a suitcase. "We are going to Italy."

"Italy?"

"It is a country in the Mediterranean."

"The country bordered by France, Switzerland, Austria and…" Alaska regurgitated, her head cocked to one side.

"Italy is the country shaped like a boot." He sighed. "It is a long way away, and our flight leaves in four hours so we need to get you packing."

"And why are we going to Italy?"

"Because, the leaning tower of Pisa will fall over unless someone can come up with an engineering solution to save it. Italy came to the UN meeting with his problem and as the world's hero, I am kind of required to help." America explained has he continued to cram clothing into suitcase.

"Okay." Alaska looked thoughtful as she perched on the edge of the bed. "That explains why you are going, why I am getting dragged along."

"Because right now," America said as he snapped the suitcase shut, "I don't trust you anywhere out of my sight."

Alaska disapproved of America's packing methods. He threw everything together without folding anything, or even checking to see if the item was clean or not. As she watched him forcing the suitcase closed she couldn't help but have the sinking feeling that she was going to have to wash out the wrinkles when two of them finally got to their final destination. Still Alaska didn't say anything. After the mistakes that she had made in New York City and the glare America had given her when she explained her knowledge of Italy she didn't think she had the right to comment.

So she sat silently as he discussed the travel arrangements with Virginia. As the two of them drove to the airport, America tapping out a drum beat on the steering wheel as he navigated the streets. Alaska only answered the questions required by security when they reached the airport. In short, she tried her very best to invisible. Her facade failed when they rolled into the terminal.

The lounge where the passengers waited for their flight had floor to ceiling plate glass window that overlooked the plane they would fly on. It Boeing 707, fully fueled, its wings swept back like a bird wanting to take to the air. Alaska had flown in a lot more planes than the average state, but most of them had either been bush or military aircraft. Even though she had watched these luxurious over the skies of Anchorage almost every day, she had never had the chance to be this close to one. Commercial flights had simply been too costly to be a justifiable expense.

"Have you ever flown in one of these planes?" All she could do was look up at America and shake her head no in response. "Well you are into a real treat today then."

When it came time to board the plane it was clear that Alaska would be unable to climb the stairway rolled up the plane, but America took the situation in stride. He rolled her across the tarmac to the base of the plane, then lifted her in his strong arms and carried her up the steep incline. As they entered the plane she had to stop herself from reaching out and petting the smooth white skin of the aircraft. Once she was inside, Alaska couldn't stop her mouth from dropping open at the sight of the spacious interior.

Both military and bush planes were built for utility. They were workhorses, heavy haulers meant to carry large amounts of cargo over long distances. In these types of aircraft, passengers were simply viewed as another form of cargo and were stuffed into the fuselage wherever they would fit. The inside of the 707 was different. There was a small kitchen on board, a coat closet, the floors were carpeted, and the walls were painted a soft white. The planes non-human cargo was hidden away out of sight of the passengers and there were even windows to the outside. Clearly, the designers of the plane had put in much effort in making the flight as comfortable as possible for the passengers.

America was clearly a regular flier on this airline. He glanced at his tickets and was able to find their seats without much instruction from the crew. Once they reached their assigned row, he set her down on a seat by the window before handing his briefcase over to the flight attendant for her to stow in the overhead compartments. He then took the aisle seat next the Alaska.

"Hello Mr. Jones. It is good to see you again." The woman who had received the luggage smiled.

"It is good to see you too." America smiled, then turned to introduced the state to the flight attendant. "Allison, I would like to introduce you to my daughter, Samantha Jones. It is her first time flying on Pan America."

"Oh, that's nice…" The flight attendant said trying to figure out how someone in who looked like they were in their early twenties could possibly be a parent to someone in their late teens.

"I was adopted into the family…" Alaska tried to explain, but the poor flight attendant still looked at her in confusion. "It's complicated."

"I see…Well, both of you have a great flight. If either of you need something don't hesitate to let me know."

"Thank you we will be sure to do so." The nation smiled, and then turned his attention to a paperback western that he had tucked in his jacket pocket.

Alaska was tempted to follow his example and pull out the heavy volume about the fall of Rome she had found in America's study, but then she noticed that several of the flight attendants were having a quiet conversation just a few rows a head of her. The way that they were glancing back at the two of them convinced her that the women were probably talking about her. Listening closely, she began to pick up snippets of what they were staying

"I knew he didn't have parents, I just didn't know that he had taken over the parenting responsibilities." A leggy burnet said, glancing over at them with pity in her eyes.

"Poor thing." Another one of the flight attendants, a red head, chittered. "To not only lose his parents so young but also have to take care of his siblings."

"I know." Allison said brightly. "We are just going to have to go above and beyond our normal service and make sure that Alfred and his sister have the very best trip possible."

Their minds were made up. The almost predatory gleam in the women's eyes told Alaska that the flight would probably not be as enjoyable as she first hoped…

"Wake up, you sleepy head. We are here."

America gently poked Alaska trying to wake her up. She responded by groggily attempting punch him. He sidestepped to avoid the blow, chuckling. Slowly the northern state blinked open her eyes and looked up at him in confusion.

"We made it to Italy already?" The state asked, glancing out the window of the plane.

"Silly goose, there aren't any planes which can make the journey from America to Italy without stopping." As America spoke, Alaska could tell that he telling a well practiced lie. They both knew that there were several planes that could fly that distance nonstop, but she also knew all of those planes were military secrets. "We are in England. Virginia was worried about your health so she arranged a longer layover in London so you could rest up before we fly to Italy."

"That was nice of her…" She yawned.

"Well we better get on our way so we can get cleaned up at Iggy's house before we drag him to dinner. If I remember right, his favorite pub is just around the corner, but we may go into the city so you can get some sightseeing done."

"I've been to London once…though it is an experience that I would rather forget…" She muttered under her breath.

"Then we will just have to make sure that this trip is extra awesome to make up for that."

Alaska had spent most of her life in isolation, but that didn't mean that she didn't know anything about the outside world. She had every copy of National Geographic ever printed, and she was an avid collector of every kind. She eagerly devoured the travel logs of the explorers from Agaclytus to Freya Stark. Some times when she went to sleep she dreamed of the golden deserts of the Sahara, the picturesque castles of Germany, or the jungle covered ruins of Thailand. Whenever she woke from these dreams, her heart would ache for exotic lands and ancient history. Now that Alaska had the opportunity to travel to one of the oldest cities in Europe, she was starting to think that her longing had been misplaced.

England was a nice enough country, but it was so crowded. People rushed about over grey stone and black pavement all under a drab cloudy sky. Double-decker buses drove by carrying people dressed in dark, professional looking suits. Tourist wearing brightly colored clothing and pointing cameras at anything that moved stuck out like a sore thumb in this landscape. That last fact made her smile, because it appeared that tourists were awkward creatures regardless of the environment.

As the black diplomatic car drove through the streets of London, the state took the time to reflect on what she knew about the city. From her studies of Europe she knew that London latitude was located south of her state capital in Juneau but north of Ottawa. That fact allowed her to be comfortable in the temperatures in this city. The current weather in London reminded her of an August day in Anchorage.

The state's thoughts were interrupted when the car turned onto a driveway in a nicer part of town just a few blocks away from the American Embassy. While the building the car parked in front of would have never been used in any of romance novels that Nova Scotia seemed to devour, though it fit perfectly with Alaska's readings of Dickens and Sherlock Holmes. It was a foreboding brick structure with worn stone lions guarding the entrance and tired ivy tracing up the walls. It was perfect.

It only took a few moments for the personification of England to come through the heavy wooden doors to greet them.

"Welcome to my home the Rose of England. I am sure that you are hungry, so after you have freshened up I have a reservation for us at one of my favorite restaurants in London."

The next morning was boring. Alaska was awake a good three hours before the two nations in the house even began to stir. She had spent the time getting dressed in the least frilly dress she found in the suitcase. The state had been dismayed by the fact that Virginia had apparently done some shopping to make sure she had some proper clothing for the trip and decided that the only way Alaska would look ladylike was to wear more lace than the average wedding dress. The fact that said dresses would make the northern state feel like a glorified dolly apparently did not cross the commonwealth's mind.

Once dressed, she had considered going down the stairs to the kitchen so that she could grab a bite to eat. On look at the steep narrow stairwell told her that there was no way that she would be able to navigate it in her weakened condition. So she took at a seat at the top and waited for the rest of the household to wake up.

For two hours, the only person who left his room was Hong Kong. The British colony looked positively annoyed at the world, but he still brought her a cup of tea and a book to help pass the time. He didn't want to talk much, which of course made her like the colony instantly. She was enjoying the volume of Shakespeare when heard a loud thud and assumed that America had rolled out of bed.

Her hypothesis was correct when America stumbled out of his room heading towards the bathroom…or toilet room…or was it a water closet? The proper term escaped her. On his way down the hall he managed to run into one wall and two doors. The racket he made woke up England who verbally chewed him out before heading to the kitchen.

Breakfast was a quiet affair during which England manage to light the kitchen on fire on three separate occasions, America stuffed his face, and Alaska and Hong Kong did their best avoid eating the meal. When the British nation settled himself down at the table promptly started lecturing her on the finer points of etiquette.

"This is a royal residence. While I know it may be asking for too much for an American state to be respectful of that fact."

"I have had a royal family in the past, and unlike some of the present company," Alaska allowed her eyes to flick towards America, "I was in very good terms with said royalty until arrangements were made for me to leave the empire."

"Still, you will show the palace the respect that it deserves. If you do not, I guarantee that you will not be invited to enter it again."

After a lot of discussion, the nations came to the decision that Alaska wasn't mature enough to sit still in the corner while the nations spoke about Cold War politics. But she had convinced them that she was old enough to be spend the beautifully clear day outside in one of the palace gardens. England decided the best place for her to spend the morning and early afternoon was in a little used pavilion overlooking a small pond. After thirty minutes of watching a pair of swans cruise the water. Alaska assumed that when England instructed her to stay put, he meant staying within the boundaries of the garden.

The state wandered about rolling her wheelchair through gravel paths of the garden for over an hour and half before she noticed the perfect spot to stop. It was next to a short wall that was covered by climbing rose bushes. The roses were magnificent and she found a little bench sheltered under their leaves. Intoxicated by the scent of the flowers, Alaska settled down to read her book for relaxed afternoon of reading. She stopped reading when she noticed a shadow had fallen across the page. She glanced up only to see very grumpy looking man standing over her.

"Who are you and what are you doing in the private royal gardens?" The man asked gruffly. Alaska tried to open her mouth to reply, but she found it so dry that her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth.

"Wait a moment, I do believe that you are being rude to one on of Sir Kirkland's honored guests." A middle aged woman interceded on her behalf. "Hello, are you one of America's states?" The woman asked as she approached. All the northern state could do was nod when she realized that her rescuer was the same person on Canada's coinage. "There is no reason to be frightened my dear. Why don't you tell me your name?"

"Samantha Jones…" Alaska mumbled timidly once she had gotten her tongue unstuck. "I represent the State of Alaska."

"Hello Samantha Jones, it is a pleasure to be introduced to one of your kind." The elderly woman extended her hand in offer to which Alaska slowly grasped in a handshake. Her gentle, grandmotherly voice then continued, "My name is Queen Elizabeth the Second and this is my youngest son Edward."

"He has Ella's eyes…" The words slipped out and tears started to form on the edges of the states eyes, but she blinked them away, blushing. "Sorry, I was remembering someone who is long gone."

"Who is was?" The queen asked kindly.

"Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine, daughter of Princess Alice of the United Kingdom...one of Queen Victoria's granddaughters. She did not survive the Russian revolution."

Alaska was clearly some sort of trouble magnet. There was simply no other way to explain how the state managed to wander off in one of the most secure buildings in the United Kingdom. And it wasn't like she had had that much time to disappear England and America had been in the meeting with the Prince of Wales for less than two hours. England was about ready to call in the palace guard when America tried to get his attention.

"Iggy, come over here?" America stage whispered.

"Don't call me Iggy you…." England sighed rolling his eyes.

"Shhhh." America said placing a finger over his lips and then violently motioning for England to come towards the door. Once the superpower was sure that England actually coming over America stated to peek through the crack in the door again.

"You know it isn't polite to spy." England hissed. "Especially in the…"

England paused, there was a very familiar giggle coming from behind the door. America was not just spying on people in the royal palace; he was spying on the monarch herself. England was about ready to strangle his former colony when America took the opportunity to knock at the door.

"Come in." Queen Elizabeth II's melodic voice drifted into the hall, and America quickly obliged. "Ah, we knew that the two of you would find us eventually. Alaska was helping us to catch up with some of the news from Canada's two territories. It seems like they have been rather busy since we were last able to visit." The queen took a delicate sip of tea before continuing. "Also, we know just how much you enjoy America's company when he is in town and we haven't had the opportunity to be introduced to little Edward yet, so we have made the arrangements for everyone to stay for dinner."

England stood there speechless. It wasn't really because what the queen had said, but the twinkle in his monarch's eye and the slight curve of her lips. Elizabeth had clearly been planning this dinner party for some time. The England realized that probably looked ridiculous and took the opportunity to shut his mouth before his former charge had a chance to notice.

"Well, apparently you are invited to stay for dinner." England sighed, because when all was said and done, a nation really can't argue against a queen when they have already made up their mind.

The next morning England drove America and Alaska back to Heathrow Airport to catch their flight to Rome. The two nations had a casual conversation in the front seat, and by conversation, it meant insulting each other's use of the English language, while the state sat in the backseat trying to keep a straight face while remembering America's attempts to figure out for what purpose the large number of forks was to be used for during the royal dinner. She failed and by the time they boarded the airplane an uncontrollable grin was plastered on her face.

The flight to Italy was uneventful. Alaska spent the entire flight with her face glued to the window trying to soak in the sheer number of towns and cities that stretched below her. Beside her America spent the time reading his western and flirting with the flight attendants. In Rome, the two personifications transferred planes for a domestic flight north.

By the time the plane landed in Florence, Alaska was pretty sure that they were on a different planet. The air here was way too warm for her tastes and thick was humidity, but while this left her uncomfortable, it did wonders for the local vegetation. Vineyards covered the rolling hills surrounding the airport and farmer's fields interspersed with picturesque villas. The vista was interrupted by a small man who probably couldn't hold still for more than five minutes if his life depended on it.

"Ciaotesoruccio! I do not believe that we have had the opportunity to meet yet." Italy bent to kiss hand, and the northern state couldn't help to blush. "My name is Feliciano. Welcome to my wonderful home of Italy."

"Feliciano, would you mind giving my state back her hand?"

"Of course…" Italy conceded, placing a small kiss on the states fingertips before letting go of her hand gently. "Oh, I know that you two must be very hungry because flying always makes me very hungry, so I've prepared a whole spread of pasta for us to share at my house, and then after we eat and our tummies are full we can look at my problem in Pisa and come up with a way to save my tower…"

"I think this tower was doomed from the start."

America and Italy suddenly looked up from the technical schematic of the Leaning Tower of Pisa to see that Alaska had somehow managed to sneak up on them and was currently looking over their shoulders at the engineering reports.

"Samantha!"

"What? I am simply pointing out the obvious. This building was already beginning to tilt during construction and I think that the only reason that it is currently standing is the fact that the stone masons on the project really knew what they were doing."

"What makes you say that?" Italy asked clearly curious.

"Well, the building is slightly banana shaped." His state motioned towards a few small details on the technical schematic of the leaning tower. She pointed to the differently constructed staircases, there were less steps on the northern staircase than the southern one. "The second reason is the ground that tower is built on. It looks like it's mostly silt and clay. It's really difficult to build on in the best of circumstances, and theses substrates are incredible unstable in the case of an earthquake...and pretty much the entire country of Italy is earthquake country…"

"So what would you do to solve this problem?"

"Honestly, I don't know…" Alaska looked thoughtful, then met the two countries gaze levelly. "I guess the first step would be to actually see the physical condition of the building. There are some things that technical semantics and photographs miss. Then set up some sensors to understand the thermal expansion of the building as well as the grounds pressure holding capacity."

Listening to his state talk out loud, America couldn't help but let a grin split his face. Bringing Alaska a long on this trip was going to make his job a whole lot easier. He glanced at Italy with his billion-dollar smile, "I think that we might have an extra person tagging along for the trip to Pisa. Can you make the arrangements?"

Historical Note- The European monarchies were all closely related, this was primarily due to the fact that one of the best method's of securing an alliance between two countries was marriage. After a while most of the marriages were between cousins. This intermarriage leads to a number of genetic diseases from showing up in the monarchy and it is believed that one of these diseases, Haemophilia, lead to the fall of the Romanov lines. Based on our modern knowledge of genetics scholars now suspect the severe case of Haemophilia suffered by Tsarevitch Alexei was inherited from intermarriage with the British Royal house.

End Note- Well, did you like the chapter? If you did I would love to hear from you. If you didn't like the chapter I would still love to hear you opinion on how to make it better.

Next Chapter- The Disadvantage of Being a Superpower – Being one of the worlds two superpower is a stressful job. The fact that China just finished its first nuclear bomb test, the Vietnam war is getting more violent, and America is in the middle of a presidential election, is making it harder and harder for America to hide the fact that he is getting sick.