Family Ties [Part 96]

Dec 26, 2010 03:00

Title: Family Ties

Characters (in this chapter): Dora, England, Scotland, France, Ireland, America, Wales, Prussia

Rating: 12

Warnings: Drama! Action! Lateness!

Summary: Uh, I need to be banned from the kink meme or monsters like this happen? Essentially, Scotland leaves the UK, which gives Northern Ireland an excuse to up and out as well, which leaves England and Wales all alone. Oh yeah, and this somehow leads to World War Three.

Dora stared blankly at them all, leaning back in the chair she'd sat down in. England vividly remembered buying that chair eighty years ago, to replace the one that had been destroyed in the last war. The poor thing was certainly showing a lot of wear and tear, and the way she was gripping the armrests of it wasn't going to help. The Birmingham lady opened her mouth to say something, and then seemed to think better of it. The Nations in the room waited for her answer.

"Right." she finally said, voice oddly calm. She pointed at the man in front of her. "You're England."

Arthur nodded.

Her finger moved around the room. "Scotland and France."

Scotland, sitting in his own chair, shrugged one shoulder, while France offered a smile. Dora looked to Ireland, and sighed.

"And you're Ireland?" The red head didn't respond beyond a flickering glance in Dora's direction. The woman gave a confused look to Sarah. "And you're..."

"The Diaspora Jews." Sarah said cheerfully, blatantly ignoring the atmosphere in the room. "The ones that never went home to Israel, my son. I've been around a while."

"I see." she folded her arms, sighing through her nose. "Either the radiation's sent you all doo-lally, or you're telling me the truth. And to be honest, I'm finding it quite hard not to trust Arthur. Thought it was just because you were a nice bloke before."

Scotland snorted. France smirked.

"And your brother, Darren..." she frowned deeply. "Was Wales."

"Yes." Arthur said stiffly, not looking directly at her. "We also lost Northern Ireland, the youngest." Quietly, Ireland flinched, fists clenching.

"Right..." Dora trailed off into deep thought for a long time, and England was about to speak up, when she spoke again. "And he's dead, is he?"

The comment was very blunt, and the siblings recoiled a little, shocked. "Yes, that would be correct." France answered for them, seeming a little irritated at how forward she was. A little sensitivity to the situation wouldn't go amiss here, he thought. Dora, however, was busy humming to herself, staring between Diaspora and England.

"Are you sure?"

Jaws dropped open. "O-of course we're fuckin' sure!" Scotland was the first to recover, nearly getting out of his seat before losing balance and having to sit back down. "When a Nation dies their body disappears! If they don't have a country to support their existence they vanish!"

"Then why's she here?" Dora pointed over at Diaspora, who seemed quite surprised at being brought into this.

"I..." she began, before trailing off thoughtfully. "I've always had my people. I was homeless, but not dead." She grimaced at a memory. "I had to live in other Nations' houses... but that's a long, nasty story for another time."

Dora looked around the room, seeming annoyed that nobody was understanding what she was getting at. "Well, I don't think he's dead then. S'long as there are people who call themselves Welsh. Cardiff weren't in the Splash Zone either."

England looked like he didn't dare believe a word of it. "But... but the water... the irradiated rain."

"Rain?" Dora suddenly burst out laughing. "They're Welsh! You're worried about them having problems with the rain?" England and Scotland shared a look as the nurse chuckled at them. "You listen here you lot, I have 214 patients in this place, and I can guarantee that at least 30 of them are Welsh, born and raised."

The siblings gaped openly at her.

"Then... then... North..." Ireland stuttered, voice still slightly raspy. Her eyes were wide with hope. Before she could continue, however, she was drowned out by a sudden ruckus outside. The roar of jet engines made them all wince and look out the window. They were shocked to find a harrier landing vertically on a clear patch of the garden, the engines barely winding down before the cockpit opened, and out jumped a man in US uniform.

"America?!" England exclaimed, disbelieving. "What on earth is he doing here?" The youngest of the siblings hobbled out of the room, somehow managing to run on crutches, dodging curious nurses until he reached the front door. "Alfred!" He called to the boy as he dodged through tents. The younger Nation stopped stock still, eyes going wide, before running forwards, up the stairs, and enclosing England in a tight hug. It hurt quite a bit, with his injuries, and England let out a loud yelp of pain, making America let go and jump back.

"Iggy..." he looked like he was about to cry. "You're okay..."

"I'm slightly less okay now you've smacked my injuries." England huffed, but didn't manage to be angry for long. "You're okay too, I see. That's good." he allowed himself a smile. The taller blonde immediately burst into tears at the sight. "Well gee, I thought my smile only made babies cry." The Brit said dryly. America wiped at his eyes and hiccuped a laugh.

"Thank god, you're normal. I thought I was going crazy..." he breathed. England frowned.

"Alfred, I think we need to talk-"

America's louder voice cut over him. "I mean, Quebec goes and betrays me and things are blowing up and Spain showed up and made me hand Mexico over - he wasn't even in this damn war before, seriously - and I was hallucinating something awful or someone was pulling some kind of horrible prank..." he laughed sheepishly. Unnoticed, the rest of the group came to stand just behind England in the doorway. "I mean, for a minute I actually believed that Canada had come back from the dead!"

England's breath froze in his lungs. "... what did you just say?"

"I know, crazy right? The whole world's gone crazy except for you and me. I mean, the not-Canada even stopped me from shooting Russia! Who would stop the hero shooting the bad guy?" America would have continued laughing, but someone was grabbing the front of his shirt. France shook him, wide eyed.

"Did you just say Canada was alive?" the Frenchman nearly shouted, looking like he didn't dare believe him. The expression was wiped from his face as America pushed him off with such force that he fell to the ground.

"Don't touch me with your filthy NWO hands, fucking Russian-sucking bastard." America snarled, his character pulling a 180 and shocking the rest of the group. His face was murderous. "You're lucky I don't put you down like the dog you are."

"America!" England said, shocked. Alfred's expression instantly morphed back to that of the boy they thought they knew.

"England, you're on my side right?" He grasped England's uninjured hand. "You're always my back up, right?"

England was shaking his head in disbelief. "Alfred, what's happened to you?" he uttered. "You're turning into... you're acting like an Empire would!" He closed his eyes for a moment. "No... no, you're acting like a superpower." He nodded, mostly to himself. "America, you have to stop this."

The blonde reeled back, lost for words momentarily. "Iggy..."

"Please, end the war. Look at me, Alfred." he held out his other hand, the burned one with skin peeling in places, and indicated his scarred face. "Look around you." He gestured at the tents, where injured people had stuck their heads out to see what the commotion was. At best, they were burned, at worst, they looked like walking skeletons. "We can't take much more of this. It has to stop."

America looked lost. "But... but Russia..."

"Is also hurt. We've taken over the capital, he has nothing left. He played his last card and still didn't win the game." He grasped the boy's hand. "Please. You know I don't often beg, but for the sake of my family, Alfred. For your own sake, stop."

Blue eyes stared, uncomprehending. "I..."

---

"No, see, it's kinda like that chart with the two circles that overlap." Prussia tried to explain to Wales, turning his fingers in the air, while searching for the word.

"A ven-diagram?" Wales offered. Prussia snapped his fingers, grinning.

"That's the one! Yeah, imagine our world, this reality, is one circle, and the other world, that limbo place, is the other one. And the overlapping bit is my house!" He nodded, satisfied with his explanation. "And that's why you can't just take him and go yet. He's still getting his shit together from the other realm, and this is the only place where he can do that properly. If you took him outside now, he'd just die again."

Wales didn't like the sound of that. What he also didn't like the sound of was a fully grown Northern Ireland while he remained so small. "And I can't leave for the same reason?"

"Eh, less like that. His situation's different." the albino shrugged. "You'll know when you have to go, and you'll find your way on your own. Not my business after that."

"Do you know if I'll get older?"

"I dunno. Probably? Not like this happens all that often. I haven't had this job that long you know, hasn't been so many wars this big during that time." He scratched the back of his head. "I'm just going on what they told me, and lemme tell ya, they never tell me enough. Stupid ineffable bastards..."

"So, when will we be ready, do you think?"

Prussia looked annoyed. "I keep telling you I don't know! Sheesh kid. I'm a gate keeper not Jesus. Besides which this overlapping space exists in a weird sort of time flux, especially for you guys. Sometimes things just happen."

---

"I..." Alfred said again. "I... don't..."

---

Wales felt a wave go through him, like he'd received a static shock, but not unpleasant. He sat up straight in his seat, blinking his momentarily whited out vision back at him. He felt light and full of energy, like he could run a hundred miles and not get tired.

"Hm?" Gilbert blinked red eyes at him. "What's up?"

"I have to go." Wales said with absolute certainty.

The albino's mouth hung open. "Wait, right now? That was fast."

The smaller Nation stood abruptly from the table. "Look after North until I come back, okay?" And with that, he started running, straight through a door that hadn't been there before.

Prussia leaned back in his chair, looking annoyed. "Okay, bye! Geez, what a hassle."

Part 97

Notes:
- Okay. So after I used to update every other day, I went three months without touching this story. To be honest, I stumbled on some critique on another site that was actually pretty harsh, and being the kind of person I am, I let it get to me far too easily, and briefly lost my drive to write this wonderful radioactive trainwreck. But I don't want to leave it unfinished. I want to get this done. This is far from my magnum opus, or my best work, but I'm proud of coming this far when so many others haven't. I'm going to finish what I started. Wish me luck.
- Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and have a good Winter Solstice, everyone (Or Summer Solstice if you're in the Southern Hemisphere). <3

family ties, fanfiction, hetalia

Previous post Next post
Up