This was heart wrenching and beautifully written, you're such an amazing author!

Where do I start? Beautiful diction, wonderful flow, and bitter-sweet ending.
Though WWII fanfics of USUK are plentiful, this one just happens to be a diamond in the rough. One of my favorites for sure.

If this is set on 25 December 1940, and if Arthur is injured THAT badly, I do not want to see his condition when the Luftwaffe bomb London five days later.

THIS IS WHAT MAKES USUK SO BEAUTIFUL! I LOVE IT! YES! THANK YOU AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The promise was... to never leave Arthur alone? to never leave his side? always together? or something...?

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Either Scotland or Wales... but somehow understandable to know the man was Wales... xD

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It was Great. A bit confusing (probably because I'm sleepy right now?), and feels a bit Angsty? or was it just my imagination?

Complicated... WWII Definitely not my favourite. (Well, I HATE WAR! But Cold War history caught my interest. Other that, the previous war American Revolutionary and American Civil war was interesting as well. And other UK's History as well.)(and of course my Country's history too!)

I'll be thrilled to pieces to read your WWII fic when you get around to it. I love your writing and how you interweave history so well into them. It's nice learning more about history in this manner. I look forward to how you'll portray Ludwig, with the internal suffering of his own citizens (even if it's only the occasional nod to the character). What happened had to be affecting him in some way as well. (By the way, have you read the Book Thief?)

I was listening to New York by the Snow Patrol while reading this and I might of choked up a few times.

My... My Artie... why you suffer so much...? *sobs*

This is amazing. So thoughtful, and so well-written! My respect goes out to you as a writer and fellow fan.

I always love when authors believably show us the sides to our Hetalia boys that we normally don't see in the show. England, enduring his pain as stoically as he can. Alfred, being concerned, anxious, overtly caring, emotionally engaged.

My heart clenched a little at the tenderness between them.

Ah, my Arthur is so proud. You can just see it in the way he bears himself.

And... you know, Germany is my fourth-favorite Hetalia character (1: England, 2: America, 3: Canada). And with this fic you just made me go, "Oh, eff you, Ludwig. Eff you."

Awesome, awesome job.

-Nieki

This story is great! Who said you can't learn anything from anime? :)

Amazing as usual. :)

Wow. This was good. This was really, really, really good.

I've read a lot of fics about America sneaking over to London during the Blitz to check on England but this is by far the best one by a country mile.

Not once did either of them break character, and the little tiny details were spot on. More people need to take notes and start writing platonic, and even romantic, USUK with this sort of characterization because it's absolutely fantastic.

This will definitely be one of my favorite Hetalia fics of all time.

This is such a beautiful piece!

How you depicted the setting, for instance, is so well done. It really seems like this... priceless moment of peace in the midst of war.

I've been reading Never Your Hero, too, and it's the same for both-I love imagining the scenes; they're so vividly described.

And I love the relationship between Alfred & Arthur here :D It's one of the better interpretations, in my opinion.

All in all, such a good job. I enjoyed it. So much. Thank you. :D

I always get a really happy spark when I see you've posted something new, then I realize I'm in for an emotional roller coaster. And as expected you never disappoint me, the dialogue, emotions, and setting really envelop you in a war torn London on a dark, damp night juxtaposed with the distant sound of carolers singing from the tunnels below. Wow, just... farking wow.

Just like in NYH when you describe Alfred's contact with the flamethrowers. That scene still plays out in my head again every now and then. That's the stuff of great writing and we really need to see more of it. Thanks so much!

Glad to see that this is up, mon amie - and that you had the heart to finish it given our previous message exchange ;)

Okay, first things first: Christmas during WWII...is not a happy thing to think about. I wrote about Christmas 1941 in "Futile Hope" and will write Christmas 1943 in my collab with Papa Jack, and here, you've chosen to write about Christmas 1940. It's not a joyful place, no, but it does warm my heart to see Alfred there doing what he does best: trying to reach out and care for others.

You know, your Alfred's rather different from mine in one respect: my version of him would have stayed neutral or, at least, attempted to get to Arthur while still maintaining his neutrality and trying to seek legal means of doing so. Yours...he just stows away on a ship, and I find that to be a rather amusing image.

But then, once you get to the hospital and Arthur turns up missing, I have to stop and take a moment to reflect on ARTHUR'S character. What exactly does that suggest about him? Simple: that he's not going to let himself lay low while his people and his land are in trouble. He's still very much the empire in nature, even though the British Empire proper was now the British Commonwealth, and he'll be damned before he lets himself rest, because in his eyes, to stop is to be defeated.

Also, kudos to you for having Alfred being helped by another nation - takes one to know one, I suppose.

I'll be frank. Once I got into Alfred's conversation with Arthur, I didn't want to stop reading - I only did because, of all things, the phone rang and broke my concentration. So, since that's already happened, let me talk about what I'd read up to this point. I love how you write both Alfred and Arthur: one's caring, but more than a bit awkward (and, unlike with the anime depiction, he KNOWS it) and the other's still wanting to step into the role of father and mentor and be the strong one in his son's stead. I'll confess that my eyes near popped out of my head at the talk of the prisoner exchange (which is where I'm at now) - NEVER have I seen that come up in a WWII story before, although I know I don't read many of them. And the thought of it, both the idea that that happened combined with the warning, "You're next" raises a LOT of questions. If Arthur had wound up in German custody while still in France...why'd they let him go? Why did LUDWIG let him go? You've got me quite curious here, girl!

"It'd...be for your own good." - I remember what you'd told me about this side of Alfred and how much of a double-edged sword here. The fact that you told me that and then almost immediately went and worked it into your own story tells me this is something you've had on your mind for a while now. And, quite frankly, I couldn't think of a better use for that phrase than how he's using it here :)

And you've just touched upon my favourite part about the war in Britain: the home front and the sheer determination of the people. SO many nations would have surrendered long ago, but the British? Oh my God, did they ever hold on - and they've won my admiration ever since.

I'm totally cracking a smile here at the discussion of Christmas in Colonial America, especially the distinction between the southern colonies and the northern ones. You won't believe how many questions I got about that after writing "Stifled Vigil" - it seemed that I amazed both Americans and non-Americans with the reality that was Christmas in Colonial Boston and...I think I've lost count of the number of times I'd had to say, "Hey, it varied across the Thirteen Colonies - check out places like Viriginia, for instance *points at Colonial Williamsburg*" Good times, good times...

"During the Revolution, these stronger ties with Britain had produced more Loyalists for the Crown against Patriot fighters" - now you know why I'd made Alfred a New Englander in "Brother of Absalom", although I know he should have started off in Virginia. But yes, with that comes the Puritan influences...and that leads to me cracking up at Arthur thinking ALFRED was a stick in the mud. Who'd have thunk?

By the way, the image of a shy Chibi!Alfred...SO ADORABLE!

O_O Whoa...that was unexpected. ARTHUR not wanting Alfred to come and help him? Way to throw a curve ball at me, girl, because in most WWII fics I've seen, it's the other way around!

Oh, no...NO, Alfred. Forgive me for saying this to you, kid, but I think you got the wrong idea, Al. Or at least, GKG, the impression I've been getting is that Arthur doesn't so much want Alfred to stay back because he'd mess things up (as our friend seems to be thinking right now) but simply because he doesn't want him getting hurt.

And that last bit, with Alfred checking Arthur's pulse like that...that was both heartwrenching but heartwarming at the same time. I love seeing how much your versions of Alfred and Arthur care for each other, and this time is no different.

Now, on to the Notes! First of all, congrats on hitting the one-year mark with "Never Your Hero" and I'm sorry for not having noticed beforehand *tackle-hugs*

Thanks for the shout-out, too! :)

All in all, this was a very nice story. Different from the usual Christmas fic here, but...we both have a tendency for doing that, don't we? ;)

Fantastic story, as always! This chapter was beautiful and I always love reading Blitz stories. (There definitely needs to be more.)

Thank you for being such a great writer!