Chapter Four:

"America?" Matthew choked on the word and he slowly turned to face Alfred. The other blonde raised an eyebrow, preparing himself for some more weird stories."You mean the country, right?" he said just wanting to make sure. "Well, duh. How many Americas are there?" Alfred said, rolling his eyes.

Gilbert remained silent, knowing how quickly Alfred's mood could shift if -or once- Mattie told him about what had happened.

"Wait, wait, lemme guess," Alfred said before Matthew could say anything. "The country was attacked by some magical wolf bandits and the bandits successfully took over the country, and then divided up the land amongst them?" He made sure to emphasize how silly he found this with air quotes at various points. "Actually..." Matthew started, but then Gilbert cut in. "Guys look at that awesome sun! It's starting to get late. Now if we don't hurry to town we won't be finished with our errands before the un-awesome curfew," the albino started marching off once more. Matthew, not sure why he tried to change the subject, but not questioning it, followed quickly behind. "A curfew?" Alfred shook his head. "This place is so out of it."

-Time Skip-

"Okay Al, just wait outside of my house until we get back, k?" Gilbert said flashing another grin.

"Um...You sure I can't just come along with ya?" Alfred asked, a bit peeved at his current position. He was seated almost inside of a prickly thorn bush and the brush was hiding his attempt at puppy dog eyes that he knew would convince them to let him come along. "Just stay put. We'll be back in a few hours!" Matthew promised. Even as he spoke, Alfred noticed his brother's voice sounding more and more distant as he and Gilbert walked away. He sighed and tried to make himself comfortable, which was not easy being trapped between the bush and a brick wall behind him. He barely had any breathing room and his glasses kept sliding down on his face- not to mention the sun was beating down hard on him from above, even though it was setting. He supposed that the reason behind this hiding place made sense. It just wasn't normal for the dead to be walking around (although he wasn't really dead, but Gilbert ignored that), and he would scare the town. But if Gilbert had told him he would be sitting here between a pointy bush and a wall, he'd have thrown more of a fit about it. Next time, he'd make sure that they both agreed on where he should hide before he was actually hiding. It didn't take long for the hot sun to make him feel sleepy. In spite of the uncomfortable position and being continually poked by thorns, he closed his eyes and decided to let himself take a nap. He deserved it after all the weirdness he'd been through.

Gilbert and Matthew went further into town and eventually saw a familiar figure in the distance. "Ludwig! What are you doing here?" Gilbert asked as they caught up to him. He could have sworn that his brother had told him just this morning that he had some appointment with a visiting mechanic. "Huh- Oh, hello. I'm just getting groceries," Ludwig said as he handed a salesman a twenty. He hulled up the heavy basket filled with meats and veggies and began walking out of the small farmers market, the two others following behind. "Wait Luddy! Dinner at your place tonight?" A small brunette- Feliciano- called out from behind a stand. "Yes, sure," Ludwig replied, only glancing back at him, but not stopping. As the trio walked back towards his house, the tallest looked down at Gilbert and asked, "What did you need?" Gilbert chewed his lip for a second before responding. "Erm… This might sound a little crazy, Ludwig, but Birdie found Alfred - the supposedly dead one- and it seems he has some sort of amnesia or something totally unawesome like that! We've brought him to your place hoping you might be able to fix him so he's back to his sort of awesome self…" Ludwig stopped in his tracks and turned to stare at Gilbert and Matthew with wide eyes. But after a moment, he shook his head, walking a bit more stiffly. "That's not very funny, Gilbert." "I'm not joking! Alfred's wearing weird clothing and claiming to not be from here… He thinks he's from..." Gilbert paused to make his voice quieter, "America. And he doesn't seem to recognize anything," he continued in a louder tone. "Well, he knows who we are but not really! Totally unawesome!" "America?" Ludwig shook his head. "That makes no sense- and what do you mean he doesn't really know who you are?" "Umm…." Gilbert searched for the right words to try to explain, but then Matthew saved him the breath.

"What he means is that he can recognize our faces and our names...but he doesn't recall any correct thing about his or our pasts," he said with a slightly sullen look. Ludwig was silent for a moment, contemplating. But then he let out a huff of breath, and said, "Alright. I'll go along with it for now. But I won't be happy if I find out that this is some sad joke you somehow roped Matthew into playing. So where is Alfred right now?" he asked. "He's at our house!" Gilbert said, glad that he believed them. Ludwig raised an eyebrow. He'd been half expecting the albino to laugh and tell him that he'd gotten him, but he seemed to be hanging onto this game. "Our house? Brother, what if he talks to the neighbors?" If they really were telling the truth, then there could be big trouble if anyone says Alfred.

Gilbert grinned and gave a thumbs up. "Don't worry. I already thought of that. He's hiding in the bushes." Ludwig rubbed a hand over his face. "You think he'll just stay there? Alfred was- I mean is- not well known for staying in one place for long." "He promised he wouldn't move," Gilbert argued, though he was a bit wary now that he thought about it. "Well come on, let's get going!"

Ludwig looked at Matthew who was quiet throughout the exchange. He just gave a sheepish look and bowed his head. "Alright, let's go." - "Hello?" a soft voice called out. Alfred stirred, rubbing his eyes and sitting up. He pushed the glasses back up onto the bridge of his nose. What a weird dream. Matthew and Gilbert were telling him that he was insane! At least now he was awake, back in between these beautiful rose bushes and this brick wall and-wait. Where was he?

Looking up, more alert now, Alfred found an Asian man with dark eyes that seemed to be piercing his very soul staring down at him. He had a pretty small frame, shortly cropped black hair and was wearing a blue robe of sorts.

That was when Alfred realized that he hadn't been dreaming. This was really happening. "Sorry, I didn't mean to bother you," the Asian man said with a thick accent. "But as I was walking by I happened to see your feet sticking out from the bush. I thought you might be Mr. Beilschmidt and that you might have fallen into the grass, so I came over to see if you needed any help. But you aren't Mr. Beilschmidt…I'll still offer my assistance though if need be."
The blonde blinked as he listened to him. That accent was actually kind of cute... "Nah man, I'm good!" he said, standing up. "But thanks anyways. I kinda dozed off in this bush and well...yeah." Alfred laughed a bit. He rolled back his shoulders, stretching and extricating himself from the bush. He wondered if he'd gotten burned at all, but the sun had nearly set by now, and he didn't feel any discomfort.

Brushing his jeans off, he extended a hand to shake with the Asian man. "I'm Alfred Jones by the way!" he said with a grin. The Asian man's eyes widened and he swallowed visibly. "Honda...Kiku," he breathed, and then fainted. If Alfred wasn't so surprised, he would have joked about how that was the most dramatic introduction he'd had all day. - Francis shut the door and looked back at Arthur. "He's still asleep," he said softly. Arthur and Francis had been waiting all day for Matthew to finally wake up but the boy seemed wiped out and was dozing away on his bed. Although the two had a sneaking suspicion that he was faking at this point, simply because he wanted to be left alone. The Englishman sighed. "I suppose I don't blame him. At least when he's asleep, he won't be thinking about how he lost his-" Before he say the word 'family', he noticed Mr. Williams with a bag of Chinese take out walking into the wing and he quickly cleared his throat, trying to act nonchalant. Francis stifled a smirk at his close recovery just as Mr. Williams was stepping up to them. "Afternoon boys," Mr. Williams said with a curt nod. He knocked on Matthew's door but was met with silence. "He hasn't woken up all day, sir," Arthur said. Mr. Williams let out a sigh. "Well, that's to be expected I guess. He had a rough day yesterday." Without pause, he turned on his heel and left the hallway. When the man was out of earshot, Francis turned to Arthur. "He left rather quickly." "I'm sure he's not happy to see his son...in this condition," Arthur murmured, with his lips quirked to the side. The two stood for a moment in an unsettling silence before Francis asked, "Should we wait in his room until he wakes up?" Arthur shrugged. "It can't hurt." Francis opened the door, which creaked slightly. The two of them snuck their way inside, and the longer-haired man could see that Matthew's eyes were open just a bit. "Well, look who's up."
"Hey," Matthew muttered, barely audible.

The older duo moved further into the room and stood on either side of Matthew. He was smiling just a little, glad to see them.

"How are you feeling?" Arthur asked.

Matthew let out a soft, slightly bitter chuckle. "I've been better."

-
A/N: One big round of applause to the wonderful beta SailorXStar ^_^ She edited this chapter epically!
Another thanks to zoewinter1 and AmeriPan Lover9 for your reviews! I'm happy to know that you like the story ^-^
Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia.

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-MW