Side Effects of Superstrength (Hetalia)

Author: Ashynarr

Summary: So you know how, canonically, Alfred can drag around cars and swing bison like it's nothing? Yeah, the other Nations do too.

Disclaimer: Hetalia's not mine.

Warning: Hilarity and chaos involving Alfred

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"You're a young man now, Alfred," Arthur began once they were nearing the edge of the woods, "Which means you need to learn how to defend yourself in case Spain - er, some Nation - decides to invade. Of course, you'll always be under my protection, but a bit of extra protection never hurts, eh?"

"Yes, Arthur," His colony replied dutifully, though he was fairly certain he could hear the excitement he was trying hard to hold back.

Arthur chuckled quietly - Alfred was certainly a long way from properly learning to reign in his emotions, but he was getting better every time he came to visit, so he supposed Virginia was doing something right by the boy. And, thankfully, his warnings to the boys about not teaching Alfred to use a musket before he could seemed to have been listened to for once.

Unslinging his musket from his waist, he turned to Alfred with a smile. "I'll show you what you need to do in order to load it properly, then I'll show you how to aim to get the best accuracy you can get from these. Don't worry about perfecting it right away - I'll be here the rest of the month, and we can come out a few more times to practice as needed."

He went through the steps slowly, making certain Alfred could clearly see how each step was meant to go - pouring the first batch of carefully measured powder into the barrel, then dropping the lead in and pushing it down to the back of the barrel, then finally pouring some more powder into the pan before closing it up and pulling back the hammer.

"Once all that is done, all you have to do is pull the trigger, and-" crack went the musket, the lead flying off at a slight angle to hit a branch a bit off from where he'd been aiming - not terrible for a demonstration, really. "You have all that?"

"Yes, Arthur," His colony replied.

"Good, then show me you can do it." He handed over the powder horn and the musket, watching carefully as Alfred mimicked what Arthur just did, looking back up at him for approval once he closed the pan and prepared the hammer. "Good, now try and take a shot."

Alfred bit his lip and nodded, bracing the butt of the musket against his shoulder before aiming for the same tree Arthur had. The musket went off with an even larger crack, though half of it seemed to come from the rather large seam going through the wood of the butt that hadn't been there a few seconds ago.

"Sorry, Arthur," Alfred replied behind a flush, ducking his head in apology. "James' rifle 's a lot more sturdy-"

"James?" Arthur asked, frowning more at that then at the, in hindsight probably inevitable, damage to something not meant to be rough handled by someone who could wrestle down a bull single-handedly. "Was he teaching you after I told him and the others specifically not to?"

"No sir," Alfred replied quickly. "I… he brought me along on a hunting trip once, and figured since I needed to learn eventually anyways it'd be better to get everything out of the way at once."

"And, when, exactly, was this?"

Alfred ducked his head some more. "Maybe when I was twenty or so?"

Arthur just groaned and rubbed at his face, wondering what else the colonies had decided to teach Alfred behind his back. No wonder the boys had all agreed so readily to his command - he should have been more suspicious at that.

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AN: Short, I know, but college started up and so I sort of had to spend some time getting back into the routine and getting ahead on some homework before I felt comfortable getting back into writing. James, FYI, is Pennsylvania, and yeah, Alfred's known how to use a rifle for quite a while at this point, whoops. Poor, poor Arthur.