North American Hurricane (Hetalia)
Author: Ashynarr
Summary: In the same vein as Bunnies For Your Amusement, I now bring you my collection of oneshots and short stories featuring the North American twins, America and Canada! Now including non-LJ drabbles.
Disclaimer: Hetalia's not mine.
Warning: Random Shit, Bros Being Bros, Treasure Planet AU
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When he'd been offered the chance to live a life of adventure as well as the prospect of earning enough payment to write off the entire debt his dad owed for the restaurant, Alfred had leapt at it, figuring his brother would forgive him once he returned with awesome stories and a few small gifts.
Funny how in all the stories they'd read as kids, they never once mentioned the tedium that was star travel; even with faster than light engines, the distances between stars was huge, and chores needed to be done to keep everything running smoothly, which was why Alfred was now cleaning the deck on his own. He groaned, leaning against the rail as he looked out over what he'd managed so far and what he had left to do before dinner came around.
"Stupid mop," He grumbled under his breath. "Stupid captain. I bet I could build a robot to clean all this so I wouldn't have to."
...not that there were any sort of spare parts he could use to do so. Nor was his history of tinkering the greatest - more than one had accidentally exploded or burnt out randomly, to the point that his dad had just accepted the incidents with a weary sigh and a demand to clean it up. Now it would totally work out, though, because he was seventeen and much better than he was as a kid, for sure!
The clomp of boots on the deck startled him out of his thoughts, causing him to jump up and look over to the newcomer. He kept looking up, because the man who'd arrived was well over a head taller than him, practically glowering down through his glasses at the younger. What had the captain's aide said his name was again - Berwald Oxen-something?
"Ah, I wasn't slacking off, promise, I was just trying to see where I'd missed…" Alfred trailed off, noting the expression hadn't changed at all even as the man glanced around the deck himself.
"...you're cleaning this by yourself?" He asked, accent thicker than Alfred expected.
"Yeah, well, I might've annoyed the captain, I think," He admitted, still a bit baffled as to how a comment on her hair at breakfast had annoyed her so much. Mattie hated going out with messy hair, and his hazy memories of his maman had been similar, so he figured others with long hair might be the same. So much for that theory, apparently.
"Everyone's done that once or twice, don't feel too down over it," Berwald replied. "I'm impressed you managed this long before doing so."
"Thanks, I guess…"
The man turned to lean on the railing, glancing out at the stars slowly shifting past them. "I'm surprised you managed to actually convince her to take you on; usually she doesn't take on kids."
"I'm not a kid," Alfred protested. "I'm seventeen."
"I didn't say that was a bad thing," He continued, glancing over to Alfred with the smallest of smiles which somehow managed to make him a lot less threatening. "When I was your age, I was part of one of the greatest pirate gangs in the inner systems, almost always getting in and out before the local guard could respond in force."
"You were a pirate?" The younger asked, a bit awed now.
"You heard of the Vikings?" Berwald asked in turn.
"Yeah, I think my dad said they were pretty infamous when he was a kid."
He nodded. "Me, Mathias and Lukas were the leaders. Best friends I ever had, and damned good at watching my back when things got rough. We did the impossible, drunk on spoils and victory. We thought we were invincible."
"...then what happened?" Alfred asked, seeing the other sigh and close his eyes.
"Lukas got killed on a raid gone wrong. We blamed each other and went our separate ways, our crews leaving soon after that because we just couldn't manage anymore." He looked back to Alfred, shrugging. "I decided to retire after that, figuring with the money I had stored up I could at least live comfortably, even if I got bored after a while."
"What made you come out of retirement then?"
"The captain tracked me down; still not sure how, she won't give me her contacts. Said that since I was one of the only ones who still knew the back ways through some of the more dangerous sectors, she needed me to navigate so that her crew had a better chance of getting out of this intact."
"Huh." Alfred looked out to the starry sky, not really sure how to respond to that at first. "You know, you're pretty cool for an old pirate guy."
"I suppose you aren't too bad for a kid either," Berwald replied, smiling a bit more when the younger squawked in protest. "Still have a lot to learn, though."
"Yeah yeah," Alfred grumbled. "I'll get better, you'll see."
"I suppose I will," He agreed, patting Alfred on the shoulder before leaving him alone with his thoughts.
If nothing else, Alfred supposed, at least he had an interesting tale to tell when he got home, regardless of whatever else happened between now and then.
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AN: Originally I was gonna have the pirate dude be Russia, but then I realized there isn't enough Sweden-America interaction, parental or otherwise, so I decided it was better to fix that lack instead. Ahahaha...