Updates. Yaaay! /dead

I've been so tired lately because of my new classes- so writing is hard. XD Sorry for the delay.

Gilbert had left Elizabeta to race down an Eastern hallway. He wondered briefly how the others were faring, and sighed in relief when he heard Matthew's voice in his ear telling them that Im Yong Soo and himself were safe.

Gilbert slowed at this, dropping to a steady trot instead of the full out run he had been going at. He panted a bit and hoped the rest of his team were still safe.

He glanced around the corner and found himself in the Vargas hallway. He chuckled nervously, and double-checked to make sure no one was there. He then ran up to see the damage. One painting had a rather suspicious dart sticking out of it, but other than that they all seemed intact. Apparently Alfred hadn't been able to grab any before he had announced they were being ambushed.

Gilbert quickly ran down the hallway, grabbing paintings haphazardly. As no one had ambushed him yet, he took it upon himself to be responsible for making sure that they hadn't wasted their time. It's what Alfred would have wanted.

He had a stack of a good five paintings before he reached the end of the hallway and stopped in his tracks.

"Lud?" He asked incredulously. "What are you doing here?"

The blonde man in front of him stopped. They shared a long look before he replied.

"I thought it might have been you, I didn't know though. You never told be you moved to New York."

Gilbert rubbed at the back of his head. "Well, yeah. We just came here a few days ago."

Ludwig nodded. He looked over at the empty walls, then to the stack of paintings.

"Sooo. You're taking the dive right?" Gilbert asked. Ludwig balked at this.

"Are you kidding me? I have a reputation to uphold you know!" He said furiously as Gilbert approached him. "I can't just 'take the dive'."

Gilbert pursed his lips, nearing Ludwig. He tilted his head slightly as he heard confirmation from Elizabeta and Sadiq that they had taken down their targets.

"Well bro, looks like four of your team's down already." He said, using he free left hand to ruffle the indignant man's hair. He received a slap for it.

"Really?" Ludwig asked, pondering.

"Yup. Didn't big bro always tell you how good his gang was?" Gilbert asked as he started walking down the halls towards the exit, Ludwig tailing him.

"Still. I'm new, I don't want to seem-"

"Does it really matter Luddy?" Gilbert interrupted. "You can just say you never ran into me."

Ludwig glared. "How come, even though I am your younger brother, I still end up taking care of you?"

Gilbert snickered. "Because I'm awesome and you're a worry-wort."

"Well none of this would be a problem if you had never left home!" Ludwig snapped. He was surprised when Gilbert stopped and turned suddenly.

"What?" He asked coldly.

Ludwig scowled. "Well if you hadn't run away all that time ago I wouldn't have to worry."

Gilbert's eyes filled with what was not so much anger or resent as hurt. "You know why I left." He whispered, dangerously softly. "You didn't have to worry, you could have just forgotten about me like everyone else."

Ludwig sighed. "You know I couldn't." He said. "I will always worry about you Gilbert."

Gilbert dropped his gaze guiltily before turning and starting to walk back down the halls.

"Well at least you ran into me and not someone else." He said finally.

The blonde man made a face at that. "You haven't told them about me?" He asked.

"Well I have," He said, pausing at he door. "But they haven't seen you yet or anything. And they'd totally whoop your ass." He smiled as a call from Yao arrived as if on cue.

"Sure." He snorted. "The only reason you're winning is because they weren't prepared for you all."

Gilbert winked at that, not that Ludwig could see as he was still wearing his snowboarding goggles. "But that's what we want, yeah?"

Ludwig rolled his eyes, which Gilbert could see. "Maybe that's what you want. I don't appreciate looking like a fool.

Gilbert smacked Ludwig's shoulder. "Yeah whatever. Go hide-out somewhere before you get caught by someone else without me."

Ludwig glared at Gilbert's back as the man walked out the door, mumbling something similar to 'will not hide-out' before storming off to find his fallen team-mates.

Outside, Gilbert walked up to the van were Matthew, Im Yong Soo, Elizabeta, Sadiq, and Yao were all gathered. "Prussia clear." He said into his mike as he approached, placing the paintings in the back of the van. "That means there's one left."

Alfred had fled the scene fast. He didn't quite like the idea of a sleep-dart to the back of the head. He panted as he rounded another corner and tried to contact his team.

"Korea? Canada? Are you there?" He was met with only radio-silence. "Shit." He snarled.

He stopped, rolling his shoulders back and hoping from foot to foot. It was no big deal, they could deal with this. It was the first time they had ever been caught in the middle of the job (well aside from Alfred's last job). However, they were trained and he trusted his team to take care of anything that came their way.

He cracked his knuckles and took a moment to come up with a plan of attack. He'd have to make sure he wasn't being tailed, then he would have to make a circle and pick up the paintings. Alfred F. Jones wasn't leaving without his prize.

He carefully started moving through the dead hallways. He padded silently, letting no sound come from his feet. He kept close to the wall, suddenly very much aware that the cameras were probably still functional. It didn't matter, as his team always wore masks anyway, but he growled at the idea that they, whoever 'they' were, would have footage of them to study. He didn't want them learning anything about his team.

He decided that his team's safety was more important than the paintings as he changed his path to now lead down to where he knew the security room was. He had to disable the cameras manually, and delete any footage of them.

He cracked his neck, he wasn't that worried. Either these hostiles were cops, in which case Alfred would wipe the floor with all of them by himself, or they were something better. However, nobody could take on his team.

He reached the control room after taking a few turns and grinned happily as his earpiece finally spoke up.

"Canada clear."

"Korea clear."

He laughed. "Cool dudes." He murmured to himself as he entered the room. He walked up to the keyboard and scrunched his nose. "Crap."

Alfred wasn't bad with computers. In fact, it was the exact opposite. He just suddenly worried over how long it would take to break the shiny new computers from the outside.

"Korea, can you give me some help getting in the computers?" He asked as he kicked the office chair aside and leaned over the keyboard.

"I don't know America, I'll try." Im Yong Soo began working furiously at his computer. Alfred cursed whoever these people were, as they were seriously starting to piss him off. Not only had they interfered with his job, but they were endangering his team and taking up too much of his time.

A good five minutes passed before Alfred finally heard an answer.

"Okay America, you can get in now."

Alfred smiled and he made swift work of the system, permanently killing it instead of stunning it out of spite, and flicking off the cameras. He glanced up at the screens before they flickered dead. In that quick moment he saw Elizabeta and Sadiq facing off with two other men, Yao out on a balcony and Gilbert running down towards the Vargas hallway. He smirked, proud of his team. He turned and walked out of the control man.

To say Alfred was surprised when he ran face-first into another figure was an understatement.

The other man took the opportunity to nail Alfred right in the side with a swift kick.

"Shit." Alfred hissed, jumping back into the room. He clutched at his side, struggling to catch his breath.

The man in the doorway leveled a gun on Alfred's chest. His piercing green gaze was steady and cold. "You're under arrest." He said calmly.

Alfred stared at the man blankly for a second before smiling. He coughed, still in pain from the kick that had nailed him. "Really?" He asked. He straightened from his doubled over position, shrugging off the pain in side.

The man raised an eyebrow and slowly repositioned his legs, obviously getting ready for Alfred to make some sort of advance. "Yes." Alfred just stood there and tilted his head slightly.

"What if I don't want to be arrested, officer?" He asked sweetly.

The man scoffed at this. "It's not really your choice is it?" He refused to lower his gun or let it waver. Alfred resisted the urge to pout at this. Maybe the man was a professional, but everybody had to let their guard down eventually.

"Well I think I should have some say." He replied. "After all, what control do you have over me?" He inched his way forward.

Arthur glared. "Halt." He said, noticing the slight, almost imperceptible movement that the criminal had made. "Don't make me shoot you."

"Aww. Would you?" He asked, taking a full step now.

His eyes widened as Arthur shifted the gun slightly and shot into the wall over his shoulder. The criminal turned his head somewhat and looked at the new hole in the wall.

"Does that answer your question?" He asked.

Alfred quickly did a reassessment of the situation. Obviously this man was for real. He leveled his shaded gaze on the man. This would have been so much easier if he had brought his pistol, as it was all he had on him was a slim pocket knife tucked into his left boot.

He bit his lip, he had a plan, but it only worked if he could get close enough to this man. As it was, he needed to be a good three steps closer to the man if he was going to be able to make it to him without being shot. (That was if the man was serious about shooting him, it could have still been a bluff.)

"That's not very nice, officer." He said, looking around the room quickly, trying to find something to help him.

"Agent." The man sniffed. "Now put your hands up now."

Alfred frowned as he realized he was out of options. He slowly raised his hands.

At that very moment, Alfred's earpiece beeped on and Elizabeta and Sadiq's voices came through. This momentarily distracted the 'agent', giving Alfred exactly the opportunity he needed. He dropped low, under the aim of the man's gun, and rushed forward.

The man acted as expected, and quickly tried to back up while re-aiming the gun at Alfred's new position. Alfred quickly shot out a hand and knocked the gun up. Unfortunately, the man was still able to keep a grip on it.

It didn't really matter though, because in the process he had been able to pin the slightly shorter man against the wall.

"I said I didn't want to." He said, smirk spreading across his face. He had one hand holding the gun away from them while the other grasped a hold of his other wrist, pinning it down against the wall.

Arthur's eyes widened at how fast the situation had played out. Suddenly he was pushed against the wall and his gun, while still in his hand, was unusable as the criminal had an equal hold on it. He struggled, trying to kick the man, but found it impossible as he was soon overpowered.

The man grinned evilly as he tilted his head. "You know, up close you're kind of cute." He said.

Arthur didn't know how to respond to that, so he just remained quiet.

He was a Wolf damn it, he needed to get himself out of this situation quick before it got out of hand. He didn't want to take his eyes off the threat in front of him, but he forced himself to try to find something he could use to his advantage.

"What no comeback? Not so snappy now that you're not pointing a gun at my chest?" Alfred asked. He received a glare from the man at that and snorted. He tilted his head and leaned closer. "You don't want to talk to me anymore? I thought we were off to a great start."

Alfred was surprised when the man answered back. "Oh come off it." He said calmly.

Arthur slowly panned the room. He internally cursed when he found nothing to help him. He then decided that the best course of action would be to play into the man's ego. From what he could hear, the man was cocky. Maybe he could convince him to let his guard down to where Arthur could get full control of his gun instead.

Alfred wasn't sure what he was expecting, but he was most certainly not expecting it when the man stopped struggling. "You giving up?" He asked. The man remained quiet and it unsettled Alfred. His grip unconsciously loosened, and he got a swift kick for it.

Arthur grinned as the man yelped and recoiled. He recovered from the kick to the shin quickly, but not quick enough, Arthur twisted his wrist, pulling against where the man's thumb and fingers met in the grasp and breaking his hold.

Alfred saw this happening and made a quick move. Instead of trying to grab the gun for himself, he knocked the gun away viciously. He watched as the gun spun across the air and landed neatly on the floor across the room. There was a moment of silence as the both of them stilled.

It was at that point that Arthur darted for the gun, hoping he'd reach it before the other man. His mistake was assuming that Alfred would dart for the gun. Instead, the man lunged forward and crashed into Arthur. Arthur cursed loudly as they crashed into the ground. He kicked out again, nailing a kick in Alfred's other side. He quickly lashed out while Alfred flinched and landed a fist on Alfred's right eye.

"Damn man." Alfred hissed, quickly grabbing the man's wrists and pinning him to the ground by placing himself over him. "That hurt."

"No really?" Arthur hissed. "It's supposed to dumbass."

Alfred laughed. "Oh feisty are we? Lashing out with words now that you know you're done? That's kind of childish." He sniggered as the man's eyes filled with resentment. "What now 'officer'?"

Arthur was becoming increasingly nervous. It was true, he was helpless now and his brain was racing to find a way to talk his way out of it. Maybe insulting the man wasn't the best idea, but Arthur was just panicked, trying to strike back any way he could.

It was one of the things that had gotten him in trouble during training. His temper had always flared up when he was presented with a situation he couldn't handle. Of course, then he had only been promptly dismissed for the day with a reprimand and told to go for help and rely on his team-mates more. Now was completely different, he couldn't just terminate the situation when he got beat.

"Fuck." Arthur growled, trying hopelessly to kick at the larger man's feet. His eyes caught on a slight shine of silver poking out of his knee-high boots and he quickly worked to keep his face neutral. The gun was far too distant to reach, but if he could somehow get ahold of that knife...

"Well I'd prefer to go on a date or two first if that's okay with you." The man wanted nothing more at that moment than to nail him right in the nose, but unfortunately his hands were still pinned. He felt some sick satisfaction that the man's right eye was already bruising.

A voice rang through Alfred's earpiece, an Oriental accent speaking in a clear voice.

"China clear, two left."

Alfred gave a smirk at this. He leaned closer to Arthur's face, causing the agent to hiss.

"You hear that? You're beat. Your team's down. You've got all of one agent left backing you, and I'm pretty sure that they're in far over their head."

Arthur did quick work in his head. If the criminals were correct in their headcount of his agents, that meant Francis, Kiku, Berwald and Toni were all definitely down. Francis and Kiku had been left together, while neither Berwald or Toni would go down without the other. That left either Lein or Ludwig as the final agents remaining. He felt suddenly sick to his stomach, for two reasons.

One, he didn't know what this man meant by 'down'. He hoped to anything that his agents were okay. He didn't even know how the operation had fallen apart since he had received no communication or distress calls from his team. He was far less concerned about what this man would do to him than he was about what his gang had done to his team.

Two, was that whether it was Lein or Ludwig, they were both new. Sure maybe they weren't straight out of training, but they were still younger and inexperienced. If the rest of his team had been taken down so easily, than those rookies would probably be in big trouble.

"So are you actually giving up this time?" Alfred asked, snapping Arthur out of his thoughts. He replied with another muffled kick to Alfred's leg, watching with anticipation as the silver knife slid a little farther out into the open.

"Ow! You are abusive aren't you!" Alfred grumbled. He considered briefly what to do. Obviously his team had taken care of themselves. One of their many plans for 'war' or being ambushed was to partner up, deal with the problem, and get out. As soon as Matt and Im Yong Soo had announced they were 'clear' that was the plan that had gone into affect. It only happened to end perfectly where it was seven on seven apparently.

As everything had gone to plan, each Nation had taken care of an agent to the best of their ability and judgment and made a getaway to the van afterwords. That meant only Gilbert hadn't faced off with anyone. He trusted Gil to take care of the last agent.

What to do with the man who was abusing him now though?

Arthur didn't grace that with an answer. This man was a threat and he had to deal with it as soon as possible. He gave the man a last kick, managing to move his foot from where Alfred had tried to pin it to keep from moving. It was all he could do to keep his eyes from lightening up when he saw the knife fall, and better yet when Alfred didn't notice. He quickly shifted his leg to cover the shine.

"Stop it!" Alfred growled. Arthur just gave him a sickly-sweet smile.

"Sorry, my foot slipped." He said innocently. The man had better do something soon. As soon as he shifted, Arthur would dive for the knife. His eyes widened slightly as he realized the man might not give him that chance. There had been no murders on the list of crimes he had committed, but how did Arthur know this man was not above killing him right there? He didn't really need a gun, he already had Arthur defenseless.

He gulped, vanishing the thought from his mind. It wasn't any good to him now, all he needed to do was focus on getting out.

"Yeah I'm sure, darling." Alfred said. He leaned back slightly, but made sure to keep his grip on the agent. He perked up as he heard Gilbert's voice come from his earpiece and ring through the room.

"Prussia clear. That means there's one left."

Arthur's heart dropped. His whole team was currently down, and it was his responsibility to make sure they weren't bleeding out somewhere or worse. And here he was, being taunted by some stupid criminal.

"Ah! That means it's just you and me." He said, grinning. "And as much as I'd love to stay with you here, I really do have to leave. Disappointing, I know."

However, despite this declaration, neither of them moved. Alfred pursed his lips as he wondered what to do. He could knock the man out, but for some reason he didn't really want to smash the man's head against the floor, you never knew what kind of damage that could do.

A wide grin spread across his face as he spotted a pair of hand-cuffs hanging from a nearby peg on the wall. This was the room where the security guard worked, how could Alfred have forgotten that? Now... How to get to the hand-cuffs?

Arthur was having a similar predicament. He knew the knife was hidden under his leg, all he had to do to get it was free a hand and reach down. He ignored the voice in his head that asked what use it was. His team was down, and the man could probably overpower him knife or not. But at this point it was mostly a battle to prove something. If he could get that knife, than at least he hadn't failed completely.

Alfred decided that the best way to solve his problem was to just drag the man along with him. The gun was still lying across the room where it had fallen before, so he didn't need to worry about that. Alfred threw caution into the wind as he decided to just go with it. After all, his knees were starting to hurt from where they were digging into the tile floor on opposite sides of the man, and his left shin was in pain from the agent's kicks. Not to mention the black eye he could feel forming.

He sat back and began to pull the man up with him.

Arthur's heart sped as he acted. He turned his own arm at an odd angle and pulled. It hurt him in the process, but he managed to break his right had out of the man's grip. He quickly grabbed the knife and flicked it open.

Alfred cursed as he lost his grip on the agent. He tried to grab for him again but pulled up short when suddenly a knife was held against his throat.

"Oh." Alfred said. Crap, how had he forgotten about the knife? He hadn't forgotten about it exactly, just had deemed it inconsequential to the situation since he certainly wasn't going to cut up the agent's pretty face. Apparently the agent had no similar quarrels, and had worked the knife out of Alfred's boot. Suddenly the petty kicks all made sense.

"Oh." The man mimicked smugly. At this point the two of them were more in a sitting position. Alfred still had a hold of the man's left hand with his right, but he no longer had his weight pressed down on the agent. His left hand hovered in the air by the side of his head, unsure what to do.

They stayed like that for a minute neither one of them moving. "Now what? You going to slice me?" Alfred asked bluntly.

Arthur balked at this. He didn't actually intend to 'slice' the man, and certainly hadn't expected the man to call him out on it so... coldly.

"Well- uh." Arthur stuttered, hand faltering.

Alfred grinned. "Knew you liked me." He said before quickly moving his hand and pulling the man's wrist away from his neck.

Arthur struggled again as Alfred pulled them up, still trying to fight. "Bloody hell!" He yelled as he realized he'd just been bested again. Damn it! He had had the knife! He had had the upper hand and yet here he was being dragged kicking and screaming over to the wall.

Alfred snagged the hand-cuffs and steered the two of them over to the desk that was bolted to the ground. He held the man's arms firmly behind his back and he pushed the man forward. A stream of rather loud, rather British curses rang through as the man battled.

It was all useless as Alfred pushed him to the ground and leaned over him.

"It was fun, but how about next time we ditch the teams when we play cops and robbers, okay?" He said with a wink as the hand-cuffs closed with a clink.

Arthur's head spun to see his hands. They were now firmly held in a pair of shining metal cuffs. The worst part was that they were on opposing sides of the leg of the bolted-down table, leaving Arthur unable to free himself. He pulled the cuffs towards his back, hoping to break them against the leg, but it was no use.

"I swear I will catch you." He snarled at the man who was backing up, admiring his handiwork. "And when I do you will be sorry."

Alfred laughed. "Do you know how many times I've heard that? Not only is it cliché, it is also overused."

Arthur sighed, letting his worn body relax. He was sore, and he wondered how long he would be locked there. He only hoped his team was okay.

"Seriously, call me sometime okay?" Alfred laughed, shooting Arthur a thumbs up, as he started to leave the room.

"Don't believe I ever caught your number, or name." Arthur replied scathingly, rolling his eyes. At this point, he was just fed up of the strange man and his tauntings.

"That's easy!" Alfred called back, standing in the doorway now. He faced Arthur and pointed to the bright flag printed on his chest. "I'm America." He shot the agent one last wink before slamming the door shut.

"Yeah." The man said, sarcasm pouring into his voice. "And I'm England."

The six members of Alfred's gang all fidgeted nervously. After Gilbert had arrived, they had all assumed they were home free. That meant there was one agent left and said agent was probably grappling with Alfred.

They all knew Alfred could handle any 'agent'. However, as time went on they all became nervous. Why hadn't Alfred called in?

"It's fine guys." Matthew reassured them. "Alfred must have gotten caught up somewhere. He would have sounded a 'negative' if he were in trouble. He's arrogant, but not so arrogant that he's let himself get beat."

He received five nods and grumbles. Matthew nodded sharply and refused to move from his seat in the passenger side. The other team-mates were all shuffling in the back of the van.

Matthew grit his teeth, where was that dratted man? He had even started the van once Gilbert had met up with them. If Alfred didn't show up soon...

They sat there for another minute before the entire van let out a relieved sigh as the computers picked up a familiar voice.

"America clear. Sorry 'bout that guys. I'll be there in a second." The voice came clearly through the speakers.

"One." Matthew counted. Against all odds, Alfred did not materialize out of thin air after one second. Instead, after a little over a minute, the perky man appeared at the door and yanked it open.

"We all clear?" He asked.

"Yes. Gilbert even grabbed the Vargas paintings." Matthew replied. "Now can we please get out of here."

Alfred nodded as he hopped in his seat. He closed the door with a slam and pulled his seat-belt down. He hit the gas and they pulled out.

"Can we please lay low for a while? I think I may have a serious bruise forming on my side." Sadiq asked from the back.

Alfred laughed loudly, making the rest of the residents of the van jump.

"You have a bruise forming?" He asked, pausing at a stop sign and turning to face the people in the back. He pointed at his left eye. "I beg to differ."

He turned back to the front and ignored the pelting of questions that flew his way. Soon, the gang realized they weren't getting any answers and immediately started coming up with their own wild theories to what happened.

Matthew exchanged a look with Alfred when he heard a cry of "Well it must have been a ninja!" from Im Yong Soo. The idea was shot down by Gilbert and Sadiq, claiming that Yao was a 'ninja' and he never had been able to land a hit like that on Alfred (much to Yao's indignation).

Alfred laughed as the frost of the job seemed to melt from around his team and they turned back into the bickering mess he knew and loved.

What would they say if they knew he'd let himself be pegged by some grumpy British man?

Sorry for the long wait. (Honestly I had the basic scene written but just didn't edit it for like... ever)

Thank you again for all the follows and favorites and reviews! I love every one. :)

(Promises to write better next time /shot)

-Dawn