Married - Chapter 7

It was quiet.  The birds sang atop the rubble, and the insects flew around, but there was no human noise.  Alfred sat at the bases of one of the large piles of rubble, looking around.
This had once been one of the busiest cities on the planet, and this one of the busiest streets.
A fallen over street sign lay nearby, its melted metal still proudly bearing the name “Wall Street”.
Alfred smiled sadly and patted one of the large pieces of concrete – which had once been part of a sky scraper – next to him.
“We’ll just have to rebuild later, won’t we?” he asked the air.
This destruction was Arthur’s fault.  The British bombings had collapsed the many skyscrapers in the city and brought about many deaths.
But this wasn’t the only city.
He was going to go to Boston next.  He wasn’t surprised at all that Arthur had bombed Boston.  He had never liked the city, and liked it even less after the revolutionary war.  There were other cities as well, which he would get to eventually.
The only reason he was here was to get away from Ivan.  He needed a break from it, and what better excuse than to say that he was visiting bombed cities.
“Well, Matt won’t have to worry too long.  I’ll be home soon.  I can’t stay away too long.”
He laughed humorlessly.
“God, am I ever the wreck?”
“Alfred?”
America swung around to see Arthur standing there, above him on the large pile of rubble.  Alfred said nothing as England carefully picked his way down the pile, nor did he move.
“Al-alfred?  Are you okay?”
America looked away, saying almost harshly,
“Why should you care?”
Without looking he knew that anger must have flashed across Arthur’s face.  He knew that Arthur cared.  But he was so upset that he did not care at the moment.
“I do care about you!  The whole reason I’m fighting this war is for you to come back!  I-I’m sorry that I have to do this, but-”
“And why do you want me to come back, anyway?  All you’ve ever done is scold me and yell at me and-”
“I love you!”
Alfred turned and looked at Arthur, genuinely surprised.
“W-what?” was all he managed to say, and it took him a moment for him to even say that.  Arthur was very, very red.
“I love you,” he repeated, “A-and I miss you.  And I want you to come back.  That’s why.”
Alfred leaned over and hugged his former empire.
“I… I’m sorry,” he mumbled, “But-”
“You love Russia, I know.”
“Arthur!  Mon cher, there you are!”  Francis appeared from behind the rubble.  He had obviously been looking for the Englishman.  “Alfred!  What are you doing here?”
“This is my city,” Alfred reminded France, “I’m allowed to be here.”
“Oh, yes, yes.  Arthur, we need to get back-”
“Wait!” Alfred suddenly cried, “You won’t attack any of Matt’s cities, will you?”
Francis shook his head,
“Arthur and I wouldn’t allow it.  We know how he is.”
Alfred nodded,
“Good.”
“Well, goodbye, Alfred.”
“Bye Arthur, Francis.”
Francis grabbed Arthur’s hand and pulled him away, distracting him from Alfred.  Arthur turned red at something Francis was saying, and began to yell.
Alfred laughed quietly at them.
“Arthur’s not in love with me.  He’s in love with Francis.  He just hasn’t figured it out yet.”
Alfred suddenly sighed.
I wish I wasn’t in love with Ivan.  Love makes everything more complicated.
He looked up when he felt a drop of water on his head.  The clouds above were dark and another raindrop fell from there, landing right on Alfred’s nose.
At least the weather agrees with me.
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Wang Yao hesitated before knocking on the door.  A part of him did not want to be here, nor face the man within.  But he had promised to try, so here he was.
Im Yong Soo answered the door, and looked very surprised to see China there.
“Brother!  Come in!” Korea said enthusiastically when he recovered.
Wang Yao followed his brother into the house, refusing to look Korea in the eyes.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you, Brother!  I heard about you joining the USSR!  How is it there?”
“It’s… well enough, aru, I suppose.  Everyone is nice.  It’s not home though, aru.”
“I invented your home!”
“You did not, aru!  Stop spouting nonsense like that!”
Korea smiled and leaned over and kissed China on the forehead.
“You know you love me.”
“That’s not an excuse, aru!”
Im Yong Soo went to kiss Wang Yao on the lips, but China pushed him away.
“I’m married, aru!  I can’t!”
“It’s not like it’s based off love.  It’s only for politics.”
“It doesn’t mean that I can do stuff like that, aru!”
“Why did your boss insist on marriage anyway?”
“He hoped that Ivan might favor me if we were married, aru.  Ivan isn’t like that though.  And besides, aru, if he was going to favor anyone, it would be America.  He really loves Alfred, aru.”
“Does he?  Then let him have his lover, and you have yours!”
“We can’t, aru!  We’re about to go to war and something like that could through us into a revolution.  We can’t do anything until after this is over, aru.  That was the reason I came over here, aru.”
“You want an alliance, right, brother?”
China nodded.
“Yes.”
“I’ll be glad to have an alliance with you.”
“Thank you, aru.  I need to go, aru.  I have to talk to the rest of our siblings.”
Korea leaned down and kissed China on the cheek.
“Have fun!”
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“Russia is going to send China to talk to all of his siblings.  Italy and I will go talk to Japan, but we need you, England, to go talk to the others.  France, go talk to Spain and Portugal.  And don’t molest either of them while you’re doing it, got it?”
“Fine, Fine.  Germany is no fun.”
“This is a war.  It’s not supposed to be fun.”