By the time they all arrived home it was past sunset. Peter was completely passed out due to a sugar crash, and Molossia was getting very tired of having to carry him around. So when he carried Peter up to bed Alfred and Natalya weren't surprised when he didn't come back downstairs.
That just left the two of them, and Natalya couldn't be more delighted. The two changed into normal clothes and quickly whipped up some dinner, which was pretty light as it was already almost 9:00 p.m. and they couldn't be bothered to spend that much time making a real meal.
During that entire time and the relaxing in the living room after, Natalya couldn't take her eyes off him. In her mind she was already beginning to form a plan on how to win his heart.
While watching some dumb superhero movie, she wasn't paying attention, Alfred momentarily glanced over and beamed at her. "I wanted to thank you again for apologizing to those girls. I know talking to random strangers like that is a little awkward for you."
Natalya's heart fluttered at the praise as she smiled back, inching a little closer to him. "It's no problem really. Like I mentioned before, a few moments of embarrassment isn't worth losing our friendship over."
Alfred laughed and waved her off. "Don't be such a drama queen, it's not like I was gonna suddenly start hating you for something as small as that."
Natalya continued smiling and got even closer. "You're so right. You would never hate me. Right?"
Alfred tilted his head a little bit and looked at her in puzzlement. "Of course not. Are you feeling alright? You're acting strange."
She suddenly grew alarmed and moved back to her original position. 'Shit! I came on too strong. Why couldn't he have been oblivious at the moment?' "Yeah. Yeah I'm fine just a little tired."
Alfred gave her a look of understanding as he began to stretch. "I get that. Swimming takes a lot out of a person. Especially someone as inexperienced as you."
All he got in return was a scowl, which he assumed was because of the jab but in reality she was internally frustrated as she tried to figure out how she would make this work.
After seeing her chances of being with Russia vanish before her eyes, her obsession of him disappeared with it. For nearly two months she'd been completely free of her obsessive tendencies, something she hadn't felt since she was a kid. And now just as she was beginning to forget what it was like, she got wrapped up in it all over again.
Unlike Russia or Alfred in the past, she no longer held a big brother complex, this time she was truly in love. The raw emotions coursing through her body was never felt for Russia. For as much as she loved him, she was never in love with him, and that made this new obsession all the more intense.
She doesn't just want to marry her protector for being a protector, she wants to marry him for him. His smile, his kind eyes, his dorky glasses, his constant laughter, that adorable bouncing hair on top of his head, and especially the rare moments of seriousness and intelligence reserved mainly for her. She wanted it all.
There was also a new obsession she felt, one she never had before and couldn't pinpoint until her feelings were realized. This wasn't solely a romantic obsession, but sexual as well. The types of things she wanted to do to Alfred... she couldn't imagine doing those same things with Russia.
Even she had limits to what she pictured with Russia, for him marriage was the end-all of the relationship. For Alfred there was no limits, she wanted to experience everything with him.
And that just made the obsession more powerful.
After zoning out for a few minutes she finally brought herself back to reality, seeing Alfred seconds away from getting on his knees and begging for forgiveness. "I'm sorry, ok?! It was a stupid joke I didn't mean it!"
Natalya stopped scowling and looked at him bemused. "What are you talking about?" Alfred stared at her in shock for a second, then broke out into a fit of laughter.
Later that night everyone had gone to bed, or at least that's what Alfred thought as him and Natalya went to their bedrooms at the same time. She was actually still awake, just staring up at her ceiling as she thought about him.
She was angry with herself for how she acted earlier. 'Asking if he hates me? What the hell is wrong with me?!' She put her hand on her forehead and cursed herself. It was so hard to contain her feelings she ended up blurting out some random nonsense.
How is she going to win his heart if she can't even speak correctly?
This dilemma was becoming very troubling for her, forcing her to get up and begin pacing her room.
First thing's first, none of her usual forwardness. That tactic has already failed her twice and only serves to push people away. Instead she will have to internalize all of her obsession, and remain calm and normal on the surface.
Whether she will be able to be her normal self for long before her emotions take over is something she will have to keep extra vigilant for. She refuses to mess up again.
Another thing she has to keep in check is her jealousy. She can hate the people that talk to Alfred all she wants, but she must not act upon her feelings. She cannot threaten, hurt, or kill anyone that interacts with Alfred, as that will alert him, and reveal to the others that she loves him.
The nations can't know, at any cost. If they figure out then Russia will, and if he knows then everything is over. Any chance of patching things up with her brother is gone. Her peaceful relationship with Alfred is gone. And the chance of avoiding nuclear war is most definitely gone.
In her mind a fight between Alfred and her brother was the worst possible outcome. While the idea of them fighting over her sounds like a dream come true, the fact that they would be hurting each other horrifies her.
There was also the fact that there was only a few days before Alfred had to leave for Russia, and only a few more after that before the next world meeting. So she had to do as much as she could now, as there was no certainty she would return a third time. There was an election in her country after all, she couldn't neglect her duties forever.
Satisfied with her plan she returned to bed, excited for what the next few days may bring.
The next morning she woke up bright and early, not only to watch the sunrise but also to get a head start on spending time with Alfred.
When she made it to his room, however, she found he was already gone. Right... his run... she completely forgot about that.
Now feeling dejected, she moped her way around the house and down to the kitchen, taking a seat facing the window as she wallowed in her loneliness. She just hoped he would return soon.
Maybe she could do something nice for him when he comes back. Surely he left before getting a proper breakfast, coming home to a large meal and his beautiful future wife might just be what he needs.
There was also the alternative gift she could give him... She could go up to his room, lay on his bed, and wait for his arrival while spread eagle and completely— 'no, dammit Natalya that's too bold!' She scolded herself while putting her hands to her rosy cheeks.
After calming down she got right to making breakfast. This time she decided on a more American style. While having him try Belarusian food is more fun, making him eat it every morning will make it quickly lose its charm.
Alfred came back almost forty minutes later. He was winded and sweating profusely, as this time he barely spent any time in town since he didn't have to go to the store or anything.
The second he entered the house he felt like he could collapse and fall asleep right there at the front door. The wave of relief that hit him when stepping inside the cold house was intoxicating, and the delicious smell wafting through the house was the cherry on top.
He was carried by his nose to the kitchen, where he found Natalya at the stove cooking something. Her hips were slowly swaying back and forth as she did a little dance, and the bottom of her dress flared out as she did a little spin to place the food on the island with the rest of it.
As she spotted him she paused for a moment, then held up what she prepared with a smile. "I made a cake."
Alfred gave a confused, open-mouthed smile as he stared at all the food. "Thanks..? You know you really don't have to keep making me breakfast."
She shook her head as she walked behind him and began pushing him toward the table. "I'm aware, but I want to. It's my breakfast too."
Alfred sat down in the chair and observed as she began bringing over all of the food, just now noticing she was wearing his favorite "kiss the cook" apron.
She actually looked pretty good in it. With her traditional dress and that apron it makes her look like a maid, which is a little cute but Alfred can't help but feel guilty at the same time. She's his friend and a guest but she's the one slaving away doing all the work.
Once all the food was on the table she sat down across from him. She took a minuscule amount and left everything else for him as they began digging in.
Alfred took a bite from a blueberry pancake, his eyes sparkling at the burst of flavor flooding his mouth. "These pancakes are really good."
Natalya blushed and touched her warm cheek with a hand. "You're too kind." Alfred shook his head in disagreement. "No really, you should show my bro your skills. He's like, the master of pancakes."
"Who?" She wondered, instantly stopping her swooning over him. Alfred momentarily stopped smiling as he rolled his eyes and mumbled something about "it's Mattie," and "why does this keep happening?"
Natalya looked absolutely devastated for making him frown. She gripped the bottom of her dress and stared at the ground in frustration. 'One day and I've already upset him.'
He smiled again and pointed at her. "Seriously, if you're my friend you're going to have to remember my awesome bro."
She nodded rapidly, filled with new determination. "I will." In her brain she was already memorizing his name over and over.
They went back to eating breakfast for a while, but as they neared the end of it Natalya became curious. "So what are you doing after this?"
Alfred shrugged as he ate the last of his eggs. "No clue. It's a workout day so I'll be occupied for a while. After that I'm free for anything."
"Could I join you?" She requested. Alfred looked at her in surprise. "Are you sure? It's really boring."
She nodded again, to which he shrugged again. "Alright, but don't blame me if you get bored as hell."
Once they finished eating Alfred put away the cake and the two headed out to his gym. Natalya didn't really do much, as she was there mainly to admire him as he worked out. Alfred, on the other hand, was putting in work, doing all sorts of different exercises for every part of his body.
While she could watch him do squats and pull-ups forever, she had to admit it was pretty strange seeing how long this took. When nearly an hour was spent on deadlifts alone she began to get curious.
"So how long does this usually take?" She wondered while slowly strolling on a treadmill. Alfred looked at her while straining to lift the barbell. "Depends on... the day. Today is... urg... arm and chest day. So I'll be do... huh... done around ten."
"Great," She grumbled while looking at the time on the phone, it was only just becoming 8:00 a.m. Alfred laughed in between breaths. "I told you... it's boring."
"How many times do you do this a week?" She asked. Alfred paused for a second, before lifting the barbell once more. "Two to three... t-times. Sometimes I... combine core day."
"And how long does a combined day take?" She asked. Alfred didn't answer as he gritted his teeth and tried lifting the bar again, but when his arms gave out he dropped it to the ground with a heavy thud.
Afterwards he grabbed a towel and brought a weak arm up to his face to wipe the sweat off. "About half the day."
Natalya stopped the treadmill and stood next to him as he sat on a weight bench. "Have you thought about upping the weight?"
Alfred nodded and wiped his face more. "Of course I have, but there's only so much weight I can add before it gets too expensive or it becomes too awkward to lift properly."
Natalya rubbed her chin with her thumb and pointer as she thought about it. "I guess that makes sense, but that only brings up more questions..."
Alfred turned to her with a puzzled look. "Like what?" She looked back at him as she began to explain. "Well first there's the running. You should have super strength in your legs as well, but from what I've seen you run just like anyone else, why is that?"
He widened his eyes at the strange question, he's never really thought about it before. "I guess that's less about the legs and more about breathing and stuff. If I really needed to I could probably do a few long leaps or a very fast sprint, but my lungs and heart can't keep up with how much speed and power are being put into them. I don't know, maybe one day I can learn how to control the strength in those organs. Until then I'll just have to deal with being normal."
That made a lot of sense. Her and Russia have super strength, but it would be pretty bizarre if she saw his lumbering body zooming around. Actually now that she thought about it, he did a lot of that when she would chase him.
"Ok. Second question. If you had to, how much could you actually lift? What's your limit?" He was expecting that question, but still didn't have an answer to it. "I'm not sure," he said with a shrug.
"Well what do you mean? Have you ever tested yourself?" She asked. He shrugged again with an awkward half smile. "I never got around to it, have you?"
She was about to ask him another question but paused, she doesn't know her max either. "Well mine's not important. You're the one with the stupid amount of strength."
"Sure it's important, here try to lift this thing," he instructed while pointing to the large barbell on the floor.
She shook her head in refusal. "I already tried it, I could only get it a few centimeters off the ground."
"Come on, if you can get it that far you can get it the rest of the way," he encouraged as he stood up and walked over to it. "I don't think that's how that works," she argued while following him.
"Sure it is, you probably just don't have the proper form down. When was the last time you worked out?" He asked while moving the barbell in front of her.
"I'm not sure, I get most of my activity in from farming," she stated. Alfred stood up and smiled at her as he put his hands on his hips. "Then I'll help you."
She grinned slightly at his smile, then her smile morphed into a devilish smirk as he walked around and behind her. He was so close she could feel his presence against her back.
"So when you bend down make sure to keep your back straight, like this," he guided as he put a hand on her back and led her down into a crouching position. She almost melted at his touch, and could barely keep her legs from shaking. "Then you want to keep your knees out like this and lift using both your legs and back. If you resort to one you could hurt yourself."
He let go of her back, which made her a little sad, but seeing he was just moving in front of her to watch made her happy again. Until she realized she didn't want to embarrass herself when she inevitably wasn't able to lift it.
"Alright now pick it up," he ordered excitedly. Dreading what was to come she shot up as hard as she could to hopefully get it off the ground. To her surprise it went up and above her head with ease, it felt almost weightless. What the hell did she do the first time?
Alfred excitedly clapped for her. "See? That was a piece of cake. You really shouldn't underestimate yourself."
Natalya froze at the compliment and looked away bashfully after setting the barbell down. 'I won't be able to hold myself back if you keep praising me like this. That's cruel you know.'
"A-Anyway, you still need to show me how strong you are," she reminded him while still looking away.
"But I still haven't seen your limit," he argued. She scoffed and began walking outside, wincing at the bright light that hit her eyes.
Alfred stepped next to her and looked out at the training ground. "I'm gonna take ten minutes or so to move all this stuff and let my arms rest. (Gotta love healing factors.) You can do whatever in the meantime."
She nodded and covered her eyes from the sun. "I'm gonna go find a hat." As she walked away Alfred went off and dragged all the targets and table away from the last time they used it. Then he looked for some things he could lift.
By the time Natalya returned with her white sun hat on, Alfred was driving his tank around the yard while hauling a giant rock behind it.
He hopped out of it and stood proudly in front of her. "We can start out with this stuff, but I can find more if it isn't enough."
She nervously stared at the massive boulder, which was about three times as tall as her. "Are you sure we can even lift this?" Alfred laughed as he dragged a large tree. "We'll just have to find out, won't we?"
After collecting everything he took a seat in the grass and watched her go through what he prepared. "Start with the small things, then the tree, tank, and the rock last. The tank is about sixty tons and I think the rock is double that."
She nodded and quickly blasted through the smaller objects. Then she began lifting the tree, which wasn't that much harder than the barbell. While she was doing that, Alfred was messing with a calculator on his phone to find more weights.
She tossed the tree to the side and began trying to get under the tank to lift that. "I don't get it, how can a person that always boasts their strength not know how strong they actually are?"
Alfred shrugged as he watched her slowly lift the tank. "Because I never had a need to. How many instances are there going to be where I need to carry a boulder or something?"
"I don't know, when you're saving someone like you always claim to want to," she argued as she gently set down the tank.
"The only times I ever need to let my strength out is when I'm fighting people like you or your brother, but you guys also have super strength so it kinda cancels out," he insisted.
Natalya looked up at the boulder and scratched her head. How was she going to pick up something so round? Slowly she began rolling it on one hand to try and lead it onto her back. "You said you held back when we fought."
"Yes, but not much," he pointed out. "The only way I could've gone any harder was if I wanted to kill you. I wouldn't feel like much of a hero if I did that to you."
She giggled a little bit as she successfully lifted the rock above her head. "Well thank you for not wanting to kill me. Now catch."
Alfred dropped his phone and held his hands out as the rock crashed down onto him. For a second it looked like he got flattened, but then the rock rose up to show that he had caught it.
"This was a waste of time," she grumbled as she leaned against the tank. Alfred threw the rock to the side and stood up after grabbing his phone. "No it isn't, I was doing some math to figure out how much I could pick up. From what I found I should be able to lift 526 tons."
Natalya nearly fell over in shock. "526 tons?!" Alfred looked back down at his phone and scratched his head. "It's also a lowballed number and when I'll only start struggling, there's a great chance it's way more."
(You should check out kifotheprotector on AO3 for the original estimates as they actually did the math. I didn't realize how strong America really was, and here I thought 12.5 tons was a lot / )
"What are we going to find that's that heavy?" She questioned as she began following Alfred, who was seemingly walking to nowhere.
"I'm not sure. 526 tons is like. . . two or three Statues of Liberty without the base," he estimated, then suddenly stopped walking. "Holy shit," he whispered to himself quietly.
As they continued walking Natalya found herself in the front yard as Alfred pulled a car up. "Hop in, we're gonna go find some stuff to lift."
Once in the car Alfred tossed his phone to her as they sped out of the driveway. "Look up how much a train car weighs, there's a train yard around here somewhere."
She looked it up on his phone, finding they were only about half as heavy as what Alfred could pick up. Though it could still serve as a challenge for her.
Driving a little down the road they found what they were looking for, but there were also people working nearby.
Alfred parked the car a little ways away and snuck through the train yard with Natalya. Once they were in a secluded area they found a good train car to attempt and pick up.
Alfred tried first, easily raising it above his head without breaking a sweat. He then handed it off to Natalya, who struggled a little bit but managed to get it above her head as well. "It's heavy, but I think I can do a little more."
"Off to the next location then, you got anything else we can lift?" He wondered as they walked back to the car. She looked down at the phone with frustration. "Everything is either way lighter or heavier."
"Are there any that are close?" He asked as they crawled back in the car. "Can you find six space shuttles? Or four and a half blue whales?" She wondered sarcastically.
"Uhh... there's whale dude but you already know I can pick him up," he joked. She glared at him for the jab, but it vanished just as fast as it came. "We could steal China's house."
Alfred snickered at that, which made Natalya snicker as well. "As funny as that would be I don't really want to deal with having all of China on my ass."
"We could see how far we can throw cars," she suggested. "Or discus throw manhole covers," Alfred added.
Natalya went back to the phone as she scrolled through hundreds of objects. "Hmm. Right here it says a pirate ship typically weighed around 1,000 tons. Bet that would have been useful during the Boston Tea Party, huh?" She joked. Alfred laughed hard at that. "Damn that would've been awesome."
"Big brother has the largest plane in the world, and when it's full of cargo it weighs around 700 tons," she noted. Alfred thought about it for a second, then perked up as he remembered something. "There's the airport near here. I have a private hangar and the jet, though it's not even close to the size of a commercial one."
"We could go into town. There could be more stuff to look for before heading to the airport," she suggested. Alfred liked that plan and began heading for town.
Sadly they couldn't find anything worth picking up. The heaviest things were the buildings themselves, and Alfred didn't feel like ripping some poor person's home off its foundation.
With nothing to do and lunch soon approaching, they walked somewhere hidden and started playing frisbee with a manhole cover.
Natalya picked it up and tossed it to Alfred. "So have you tried going to your government and seeing what they could do?"
Alfred jumped and caught the cover. "I did a long time ago, but before we did any tests I backed out." He then threw the cover back, which Natalya caught.
"Why not? Did something happen?" Alfred nodded as he held his hand out to brace for the disk flying at him. "Yeah, MK-Ultra happened."
"MK-Ultra?" She asked with a tilt of her head. Alfred grimaced as he recollected the time. "Yeah, it was a project that started during the early years of the Cold War. During the time, the CIA did a lot of really bad experiments on people using psychedelics and other crud. It was mostly to study their effects, but also they wanted to try and find ways to mind control and torture spies and stuff. You know, the thing with sleeper agents and "truth serums."
Natalya hummed in thought as they passed a few more throws. "Do you know about the Nazino Tragedy?" She asked.
Alfred paused for a second then raised an eyebrow. "Cannibal Island?" Natalya frowned at the childish name but nodded anyway. "Yeah I know it, why?"
"I was wondering if any of the experiments done were as bad as that," she stated. Alfred seemed to understand and set the manhole cover on its side to lean on.
"No, nothing was that bad, but we still had some messed up experiments. I can't remember the worst off the top of my head, since the CIA ended up destroying most of the records, but I do remember Operation Midnight Climax. That was pretty messed up."
"Oh? With a name like that it must be something strange," she joked. Alfred was stuck somewhere between a nod and a shrug. "Eeh, not really strange, it's more literal." That left Natalya confused.
"You see, they would hire prostitutes and use them to lure random guys into warehouses and other places where they would get kidnapped and experimented on. So when you think about prostitutes and the name you can see why it's called that. It's really fucked actually, the amount of crimes that comes just in a government agency hiring prostitutes is alarming."
"I see... well at least they weren't made to eat people," she half-joked. Alfred gave her a grave look in return. "I wouldn't put it past them... and what's worse is that it was my fault any of it happened in the first place."
"What do you mean?" She wondered. Alfred slowly rubbed the back of his neck. "MK-Ultra happened because I was paranoid of your brother, if I just took a chill pill there would be a lot less innocent people screwed up by my own government."
"Quit being so hard on yourself. Also, throw me the thing," she demanded. Alfred shook his head with a chuckle as he tossed it to her. When looking over at her, his laugh vanished as he saw she was standing there with empty arms and a wide-eyed expression. Looking up he noticed the cover flying over the building they were hiding behind. About three seconds later there was the sound of glass shattering and a car horn blaring.
Natalya and Alfred cringed at the noise, until they heard the sound of a man screaming. They ran to the side of the building and peeked over at the other side of the street, where a man was on his knees and holding his head while staring at a manhole cover shoved halfway through his windshield.
Alfred looked down at Natalya with a regretful look. "You don't happen to have a pen, do you?"
The man in the middle of the street was on the verge of tears over his brand new car already being destroyed, but paused as he heard the sound of glass breaking and footsteps running away.
He opened his eyes and looked back up at the car. The manhole cover was now gone and in its place was something wedged under the windshield wiper. He stood up and plucked it out of the wiper with a confused look. The front of the bundle was a wad of a few thousand dollars, and under that was a napkin with a sloppily written "sorry for the damage" and a smiley face scribbled under it.
He scratched his head and chuckled a little. "Umm... thanks?"
Alfred and Natalya were silent all the way until they entered a fast food place for lunch, in which Natalya rolled her eyes while Alfred stared at his almost empty wallet. "You didn't have to give him all your money, a few hundred would've been fine," she complained.
"It was for compensation for probably giving him a heart attack," he argued. "It would've been fine if I didn't forget my stupid card at home. Whatever, guess we just have to share."
As they stepped in front of the front counter Alfred began ordering. "Sup Francine, I'll just take the usual but just keep it to one burger. Natalya what do you want?"
She looked up at the menu, which was about 90% burgers. "How about a chicken sandwich?" She shrugged. Alfred nodded and made sure Francine got it.
"You better not be cutting out on me Alfred, you're our biggest customer you know?" Francine joked. Alfred quietly laughed in embarrassment. "I'm not, I just forgot most of my money at home."
"Good, I don't think our business would survive without you," she chuckled. Natalya darted her eyes between the two, her jealousy beginning to grow again. Why are all these women so friendly with him?
She didn't have much time to be angry as they quickly walked away once Alfred got their lunch. He sat at an empty table and gave her her sandwich. Then he placed a bag of large fries and a large milkshake in the middle.
After taking off the top he placed two straws in it, which made Natalya turn beet red. We're they actually about to share a drink?
Alfred took a sip out of it and licked his lips. "It's really good, you should try it," he urged as he pushed it a little toward her. She picked it up and slowly brought it to her mouth, taking a slow and large gulp of the sweet chocolatey drink.
"See, what did I tell you?" He asked pridefully. As her lips left the straw she licked her own lips. "Da it is very good."
For a while they ate their food, with Natalya especially going for the fries because of course she did. After the food was all gone, the only thing left was the milkshake.
Natalya was the first to take a sip, but as she began drinking she noticed Alfred had started drinking as well. He didn't seem to notice anything wrong with it, but to her this was intense. Her face was on fire, instantly warming up all the cool liquid that entered her mouth.
The two paused a few times to let it settle in their stomachs, but that didn't stop them from making quick work of the milkshake.
Just as they were about to finish, Alfred glanced away from the drink, his eyes widening as he was met with the smug grins of the Johnsons only a few tables away. In his surprise he inhaled accidentally, making him start to choke.
Natalya stopped her own drinking as she stared at him in panic. "Alfred are you ok?!" He quickly nodded and looked away as he coughed a few times into his arm.
After getting everything out of his lungs he looked down at the almost empty cup. Suddenly the gravity of what he was doing hit him like a truck. If his face wasn't red from almost dying then Natalya definitely would notice his blushing.
'That was so stupid, what was I thinking? I could've just not gotten a drink, God why can't she just kill me now?' He cursed himself.
'Y'know... she doesn't actually seem too bothered by it. Maybe ya got lucky.' Confederacy suggested.
'You think?' He wondered, glancing between Natalya's worried face and Mrs. Johnson from his peripheral. 'Alright time to go.'
"You ready to go?" He asked as he stood up with his back to the Johnsons. "Actually I have to go to the bathroom," she said as she stood up too.
"Alright, it's right over there," he instructed as he pointed over to a door on the other side of the restaurant.
She nodded and walked away. Just as she walked in and the bathroom door closed behind her, Alfred turned and angrily marched over to the elderly couple. "Ok I know what you're thinking and just save it. It's not what you think."
Mr. Johnson chuckled with a disbelieving shake of the head. "Sure thing sport." He took a long sip of his drink as Alfred glared at him with red cheeks.
He chewed them out for a little bit more before pausing as he heard the bathroom door open, so he quickly sped away from them and over to the door to leave. He faked a happy smile as he tossed the cup in the garbage. "You ready?"
She nodded and happily skipped past him and out the door. Alfred followed after her, and as they walked shoulder to shoulder past the side window he gave the Johnsons one last glare.
The second they were out of view the Johnsons burst out in uncontrollable laughter. "Oh those two are so hopelessly in love it hurts," Mrs. Johnson laughed while wiping her tears away.
That night the two nations continued their quest at the airport. They made their way over to Alfred's hangar with no problem, but obviously a private jet is child's play so the next thing to do was find a real plane.
They snuck their way across the runways to the main airport, where all the giant planes were. Alfred held his phone and began searching the types of planes he was seeing. "So that's a Boeing 777, which is about 250 tons. So it's only a little more than the train car."
Knowing they could both lift that, they moved onto the next one, which was absolutely massive. "Ok so this is a Boeing 747-8, which is 487.5 tons." The two glanced at each other for a second before both snuck up to it. Due to the wheels, the plane was multiple feet above their heads, how were they going to lift it if they can't even reach it?
Alfred stared at the plane in thought before suddenly getting an idea. "Hold on I've got a plan. You stay right here, I'm gonna sneak on board and make the wheels go in."
"Yeah, because there's no way this could go wrong," she grumbled sarcastically. "It's fine, it's not like there's anyone on the plane," he assured.
"That's not the problem," she argued, but that fell on deaf ears as he was already leaving. Next thing she knew the noise of the wheels moving began, and ever so slowly the plane lowered to where she could reach.
But as the wheels came out entirely she was nearly crushed under the weight. It was so much, it felt like holding it up would tear every muscle in her body. By the time Alfred came back her face was drenched with sweat and she felt like she was going to pass out.
Alfred quickly ran over and lifted it off of her as if it was nothing. "Jeez Nat are you ok?" She let her weakened arms dangle limply at her sides as she caught her breath. "No, I said I could do a little more than the train car! This was over twice as heavy you fucking dumbass!"
Alfred nervously backed up a little bit as she stepped up to him and began shouting in his face. "I'm sorry, I forgot. Can you please yell quieter?" He said in a whisper while looking out for any potential witnesses.
Both paused and went silent as they heard a voice call out, "hello? Who's there?" Alfred panicked as he was only seconds away from being caught with an airplane over his head.
As he began setting the plane down Natalya stopped him. "Wait the wheels are still up!" She whisper yelled. "No time!" he argued as he set it down and grabbed her hand to run away.
She was startled at the initial contact but wrapped her hand around his as they ran away together. They got off the runway and hopped a fence to enter the nearby forest, but in the darkness neither noticed the large drop off from a massive gully until it was two late.
The second they felt themselves falling they latched onto each other for protection, but it didn't do much as they tumbled down and collapsed at the bottom.
They groaned simultaneously and laid there in a cloud of dust for as they let the pain sink in. Even while being in immense pain, Natalya wasn't complaining as she was laying on Alfred's chest. Maybe she could pretend she was knocked out.
That chance never came as a bright light from a flashlight shined on them. "Well well, isn't this a surprise. Alfred Jones, it's been a while."
Alfred sighed as he heard the familiar voice. "Hi Chuck." Natalya raised her head and looked up at Alfred's face in confusion. "Huh?"
"Oh, well hello there girly. And who might you be?" The man asked. Natalya turned to the light and glared at it. She couldn't see who it was, but if they even do as much as lay a finger on her Alfred then they wouldn't see the light of day ever again.
She instinctively wrapped her arms around Alfred's neck and held him protectively against whoever was talking.
"Not the talkative type I see. Alfred you wanna tell me what you're doing here?" Chuck asked while directing the flashlight onto Alfred's face.
"Umm... seeing if I can pick up a plane," he shrugged. Natalya looked at him nervously but Chuck just sighed incredulously. "Ok comedian, let's go."
He placed the flashlight on his belt and handcuffed both nations. It was just now that Natalya realized this was a cop.
As they were hauled to the nearby cop car, Natalya leaned over and whispered to Alfred. "Is this the guy that gave you the noise complaint?"
"Yeah, this guy is a dick," he whispered back. "For some reason he just has it out for me. I'm not sure why."
The two were driven to the police department and were placed in a holding cell. Now in the light, Natalya could see that Chuck was a pudgy balding man, but also looked to only be in his early 30s at most. He also had the most shit-eating grin as he stared at the two of them in the cell. It pissed her off.
Alfred was pissed as well, but was doing more to hide it. He followed the cop's movements with his eyes, wondering what he should do. He could easily break out, but that would only make things worse. He could also wait out the time, but that would be embarrassing both for him and Natalya. Finally he could... fuck.
Alfred sighed and hung his head low as he found no other option. He then looked up at Chuck with a miserable expression. "Can I make a call?"
Chuck raised an eyebrow but eventually agreed. As Alfred began calling a number on a landline Chuck sat back with a smug grin. Like Alfred knows anyone that could get him out of this.
As the call connected Alfred quieted down and whispered into the phone. "I know... uh huh, yeah. Look I know— I'll do the paperwork I just need out. Yes... ok yeah. Bye."
After hanging up, Alfred let out a long sigh and put his head against the wall. Chuck let out a laugh and began to mock him, only to be interrupted by a phone call.
He froze as he listened to the person on the other end. "You can't be serious... son of a— ok, yeah fine I got it."
He hung up angrily and grumbled as he marched over to the cell and unlocked it. "You're free to go. But just know that one day I will take you down, and your government buddies won't be able to get you out."
Alfred and Natalya stood to leave, but just as Alfred stepped out of the cell Chuck blocked Natalya from leaving. "You're not going anywhere missy, only Alfred has permission to leave."
Alfred frowned and turned to Chuck. "Let her go too, she's got diplomatic immunity." Chuck laughed and looked back at Alfred with a snarl. "Always one with the jokes, aren't you?"
Natalya then thrusted her ID card at Chuck's chest, who lifted it up to his face and inspected it. Seeing it was valid his eyes shot out of his head and he nearly screamed. "Dammit just get out of here!" He ordered as he gave the card back.
Both nations left now with grins on their face, but right before leaving the police station they glanced back at the line of cars. At the same time they looked at each other with mischievous grins.
Careful to avoid any cameras catching them, they stacked all the cop cars on top of each other in a large tower. After finishing, they stepped back and looked at their work.
"We should get out of here, I just used my only presidential pardon," Alfred notified her as he walked over. She agreed as they began walking away.
At the sound of the police department's front door opening, the nations clutched each other's hand and ran away laughing into the night.