"Hey, big brother?" Arthur spoke tilting his head up slightly to look Alba in his eyes, his own eyes glistening with unshed tears, his mind still stuck in the memories he and his brother had once made and the new experiences then had ventured into. Looking down towards his youngest brother, Alba notice the small pools of water rushing up in his siblings eyes, gently he moved his hand from its resting place in silky blonde locks, to wipe away the liquid in Arthur's eyes.
" What is it hmm?" his voice was soft and caring as he sat above the blonde making sure to rid his face of any tears which may have escaped from their prison.
"you remember when you all came to my house years ago... to try and make us a family again" Arthur paused waiting for his brother to nod his affirmative, within seconds Alba gave a small grunt of recognition before signalling for the boy to carry on "why didn't you tell the others then about the war... or the fact that you had seen me before that time?"
the question startled the Scotsman but not enough to make him show this emotion on his face, carefully he planned out what word he would use to describe his reasoning's back then, he knew why he did it. He had noticed the pain his youngest brother was in as he fought at his side during that war, he remembered feeling that pain once before, when Rome took all of his brothers away from him, the pain on their faces as he watched them being dragged away from him, the feeling of knowing he was too weak to fight anymore. he wanted to forget about that look on his brothers' face when Alfred walked away from him, so he left, he hid from the world to forget. When he finally accepted everything, he had found a new aim, not to become free, no he didn't want that as much now as he used to, his new aim was simple enough but hard to get. To rebuild his family, he himself had tried the idea of becoming an empire but it had failed, causing him more pain, no he was going to rebuild his original family, his real brothers.
he reached out to Shawn first, his trust was hard to get but once he had it, it would last for the rest of their lives. Next he went after Cymru, he was rather easy, as soon as alba and Shawn had knocked on the door Cymru had noticed them and hugged them both talking about how he missed them and he wanted them to be a family once again. the loneliness had obviously affected him badly as he never let go of either Shawns' or his hand whilst they were together. Arthur was the only one who was difficult, he blamed himself for everything that had happened to the broken family, but it had only taken chasing him through a forest and Cymru glomping him to convince him that they wanted him back. Drawing him away from his thoughts Arthur sat up staring intently into Alba's eyes, waiting for his brothers' answer.
"I didn't want them to know about how hurt you were only years before all of that... they, we wanted our little brother back it didn't matter who had seen who, just when would we see each other again... and they didn't need to know all about the war as far as they knew I had been locked up in my house for years with the Panama project" after a few more seconds of staring, the answer seemed to pass the Brits test as he led back down in his brothers lap, waiting for the morning to come.
"Hey, what brought that question on anyway?" alba half way shouted as he poked his brothers temple, in a way only he could get away with.
"hmmm? did you say something?" came Arthur's drawled out answer, his voice sounding a mixture of amusement and boredom, until he broke out into a fit of giggles curtsey of Alba's new facial expression; a mixture between annoyed, confusion and joy. it didn't take long for alba to start laughing alongside his brother, forgetting about the small conversation they had just had to enjoy the relaxing feeling of hearing the calming ring of his brothers laughter once more, he was healing.
"it's gonna be morning soon... and we will have to go pick my sons up from the airport as well" Arthur stated between his giggles, trying to keep the mood as light and fun as it was at the moment with Alba sat there, his younger brothers head resting in his lap as they both giggled about everything and nothing. the time seemed to fly by as the two sat together, soon the sun was rising in the sky and birds were singing their morning song.
"hey Arthur, wanna play a game?" alba asked his voice filled with joy and mischief as the blonde man in his lap bolted up from his laid down position to kneel in front of the elder man, his posture and eyes displaying his eagerness for whatever game his brother might have in mind for these early morning hours. Alba couldn't help trying to stifle his laughter at both his own excitement and the way his brothers face still lit up like the night sky whenever the proposition of playing a game into a conversation, he highly doubted that his brother displayed this side of him to the other countries he interacted with, bar his sons. the mere thought of this gave alba a warm feeling of being a special person within England's life.
"it's a game I like to call ' get the lazy asses out of bed'..." alba began his voice sounding to professional for the topic he was discussing, leaning forward he began to whisper into Arthur's ears the game plan " what we have to do is, choose a target, it is an easy game the way to win is to beat your opponent in waking the other sleeper, got it?" Arthur nodded his head vigorously, quickly jumping up from his sitting position to run into his twins tent, in an attempt to get a head start. noticing what the boy was doing alba launched from the floor into his Irish brothers' tent not wanting to lose to his younger brother yet again.
"hey, hey Cymru~ CYMRU!" Arthur cooed and shouted as he shook his brother, trying to be gentle with his twin whilst still trying to win the game.
"OI! Shawn get up ye bloody leprechaun or I will take ye gold!" alba shouted as he lightly kicked his brothers side ' I will not lose again' he thought as he began dragging Shawn off of his bed.
Arthur stood above Cymru, his twin hadn't so much as twitched at his attempts to wake him up, Arthur's eyes spontaneously sparked with a new idea, quietly the short haired blonde boy knelt down next to his long haired brother, leaning close to his twins ears he whispered softly
"Brawd, please wake up.. I need a hug" his voice went up slightly in pitch at the end of his sentence, if this plan didn't work nothing would. His eyes sparkled as his twins own eyes snapped open, his body flinging forward in a attempt to give his twin the hug he wanted, reacting quickly Arthur wrapped his arms around Cymru's waist picking him up to carry him out of the tent, his Cheshire like smile never leaving his face 'works like a charm' he though as he pushed his way out of the make shift portable house.
Alba was at a standstill with his challenge of waking the slumbering Irishman, who was now hanging upside-down in alba's grip, still fast asleep. 'why did I have to get the heavy sleeper?' the Scotsman questioned himself as he began shaking his brother once again, only to come up empty handed as Shawn grumbled quietly only to fall back to sleep again. Scotland could feel the veins in the side of his head bulging with his anger at his younger brothers actions, finally the Celtic nation had had enough of going the easy way with his fellow red head, dropping the man on his head on the bed before grabbing the cup of cold water next to him and pouring it onto the boy, making the northern part of Ireland splutter as he shot up off of the bed, launching himself at Alba in an attempt to strangle him, Scotland being used to this from his younger brother simply caught the man mid-air, tucking him under his left arm kicking and screaming profanities as he was dragged away from his now wet bed and lovely dream.
As if they had planned it, both groups entered the main part of the camp in tandem, not a second out of step as the youngest and eldest brother set out into a sprint toward the sitting area next to the fire, both reaching for the seats first as they both charged to slam down onto a seat declaring them the winner of the game. As Arthur ran forward, he twisted Cymru around in his arms so that when he won his twin would be sat in his lap instead of being squished beneath him, next to him he saw Alba swing his own cargo around so that he was being carried bridal style, neither brother paid any real attention to their cargo's otherwise they would have noticed the crazed look in Shawn's eyes at the sudden bolt of action in his morning routine or how Cymru's eyes widened when he finally realised what was happening, his arms wrapping around his twins neck as his legs copied the action around the waist in a desperate attempt to get more grip on his sibling in the mad rush they were in.
as both running brothers turned the small corner of the log they had gathered to use as a sofa, their eyes met. a dangerous battle facing of between the two sets of adrenalin filled green eyes as they simultaneously launched for the seats, sitting down with rather loud 'umphs' omitting from all of the brothers at the shock and force they had used for such a simple task. All of the brothers looked at one another before bursting out into a fit of laughter, it was such a hectic way to wake the slumbering countries up but each and every one of them had enjoyed it.
"Come on lads we best eat breakfast and be on the road, my sons will be here soon!" Arthur announced as he quickly squeeze the blonde man in his lap with his excitement, a large smile plastered on his face at the thought of having his whole family here, not one brother missed the look on their youngest brothers' face nor did they want to, it had been a while since he had shown nothing but pure happiness and harmony on his face rather than a mixture of sorrow and discord he usually had.
And so they all set to work, three of the four men keeping that one expression in mind, each wanting that look to come back into their lives and never leave again, that was part of their new game.