/**

* We're officially halfway through the story. Yay.! Sorry if it seems like nothing much has happened, but as you've probably already noticed, this story isn't really plot driven.

* Btw, Erland is Ladonia. (Thank you, bishi-bishi, for reminding me.)

*/

V

Peter

Stockholm, Sweden. March 23, 9:32 am

Peter did not feel well. He was sure it wasn't the filmjรถlk bread he ate for breakfast, but his stomach kept on flipping and he could almost feel the bile in his throat. He thought that maybe it had something to do with the nightmare he had...

Erland, who had been complaining about Berwald again, noticed and looked at him with worry. "You look sick."

"I feel sick. But it wasn't breakfast."

"Damn," Erland clicked his tongue. "That would have been one more thing to complain about Berwald."

Peter playfully punched his arm. "Berwald is fine."

Erland scoffed.

"Say, Erland?" The other boy looked at Petter attentively. "What would you feel if, for some reason, you won't be able to see Berwald again?"

"As if that'll ever happen," Erland said, dismissing the thought almost immediately. "We're nations. Well, they are. If anything, we'll go first."

"But... What if it happens? What if suddenly he's gone and we're left behind? What would you feel?" Peter insisted.

The other boy looked at him strangely but thought about his question nonetheless. "I think I'd be devastated."

"That's the primary reaction to losing an important person, right?"

Erland looked scandalized. "I didn't mean that he's important to me! It's just..." He sighed. "I suppose he is important to me. I'd feel really sad if he would just vanish into thin air... Actually, scratch that. I'll be mad. I'll be mad at him because he left without saying goodbye. And I'll be mad at myself because I took the time I had with him for granted and I wasn't able to say that I'm grateful to him, that I appreciate all of the things that he did for me, that I don't actually hate him despite how I act in front of him..."

Peter stared at him wide eyed and he hastily tried to take his words back. "But of course that's a hypothetical scenario. So, I won't be doing that anytime soon." He tried to laugh it off, but Peter looked as if he was inspired.

"You're being pretty honest."

"It was all hypothetical! Hypothetical, I tell you."

"But you know..." Peter started, smiling ruefully. "I think I'd like to be as honest as you are."

Erland was silent for a while. "Did you... Lose somebody important, somehow?"

Peter shook his head. "No, but... I had a nightmare last night."

"About losing Berwald?"

"Not Berwald, but somebody as important."

Erland gave him a knowing smile. "Is it Arthur?" Peter's face turned red and the other boy laughed. "He's important to you, huh?"

"No!" Peter exclaimed. "I mean... He's a jerk. He's so grumpy and boring and sarcastic and... And confusing. He always gets mad at me when I 'tresspass' in World Meetings, he always yells at me for little things, he always tells me I'm annoying and to 'get lost'... But he's also always there for when I have nightmares, he gives me presents on my birthday and Christmas, he asks Kiku for toys to give me, he's there when I feel and sad and lonely... He's such a jerk for making me feel so conflicted.

"Have you ever seen Arthur smile? If not, do you think you can ever imagine him smiling? No, right? I mean, he always has that scowl on his face and his eyebrows are always scrunched up and he looks so scary. But I've seen him smile. It was weird. I mean, you'd imagine something as scary as his face but... His smile was lovely. It was so bright, so blinding. Like he's an angel. It was... What's the word? Surreal. Mystifying.

"I... I want to see it again. I want to make him smile again, like those times before. I... I want him to acknowledge me. I want him to be proud of me. I want to see him beaming with his eyes sparkling while saying, 'As expected of Peter'. I want to be something."

Peter didn't even notice that he was crying. He wanted to do all of what he had said, but if he could never see Arthur again... If, for some reason, he couldn't talk to Arthur again... His chest clenched painfully at the thought.

"Do you want to call him?" Erland asked after a while. "I mean, you're feeling awfully depressed about that nightmare that you had and you won't feel better unless you talk to him, right?"

"He's in LA though. What's the time difference?" Peter wiped his tears away. He was going to talk to Arthur so there was nothing to worry about... Right? Like Erland had said, they were nations. It's improbable for them to just disappear...

"9 hours." The two boys grinned. "So it's like, almost 2 in the morning there"

"Arthur's going to be livid, but I can live with that," Peter said, excitedly dialing on his phone. After all, an angry Arthur was better than no Arthur at all.

~.;*;.~

Los Angeles, USA. March 23, 5:12 pm

Peter had panicked when Arthur's phone was declared unreachable, and so he dialed the next number he could think of: his Uncle Alistair's number. He had asked the man about Arthur's whereabouts, but he was simply told to come to Los Angeles. Of course, Peter found it suspicious, as the nations didn't really like it when he went to their meetings on his own accord and them inviting him to one was simply impossible. Not to mention that Alistair was there, and the man preferred to leave all matters of politics to his youngest brother.

His uncle didn't tell him anything about Arthur and why he was unreachable. The only thing the man has said was to come to LA, offering no explanation as to why, but Peter figured that it was because something had happened to Arthur. On the plane, he didn't dwell on it much, but when he had settled himself more than 15 hours later on Alfred's comfortable couch, with the entire Kirkland family sans Arthur and the G8 looking all somber, he had come to realize that maybe his nightmare did come true.

"What happened? Where's Arthur?" he whispered, afraid of the answer. His stomach was in knots and he just knew that something bad had occurred...

"Arthur's in the hospital," Francis answered him. "He got into an accident yesterday morning."

Peter felt the tears fall and his Uncle Dylan put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "He's alive, so don't worry."

"I... I'll see him again, right?" he asked, his voice breaking. He wouldn't know what to do if he couldn't see him again...

"Of course you will!" Alfred sounded like he was trying to convince himself as well. "We'll see him again and he'll berate us for crying for no reason and then... And then..."

"And then he'll laugh at us because we look absolutely horrid with red puffy eyes and snot running down our noses," Matthew said, speaking in a rare loud voice, and everybody laughed.

It sounded like something Arthur would have done if he saw them.

No, it sounded like something Arthur would do if he saw them.

"Can we visit him at the hospital tomorrow?" Peter asked. The atmosphere turned somber again.

"The doctors said we can't visit him until his condition stabilizes," Alfred said. "But... Uhh... Look on the bright side. We get more time to plan our speeches when we see him again."

"I don't think he'll be up to listening to another tirade about superheroes the moment he wakes up-"

"Hey! Heroes are awesome..."

Peter smiled. These people knew Arthur from way back. They fought him, fought alongside him, saw his good sides, saw his bad sides, knew how he'd think and act. And if they believed that he'll survive, that he won't go down so easily, then who was he to refute that?

And if the whole world believed, even that tiny and insignificant peace of metal floating in the sea, how could Arthur not feel the weight of that faith?

/ Please review. :) /