Holy chapter update, Batman! It's been two years since the last one!

"Vanyusha, I hope that the Americans have treated you well?"

Belarus had been standing around the corner of the police building, waiting for her dearest brother to be released from police custody. She wore a sharp expression, and it seemed like she could be hiding knives underneath her elegant blue dress. Russia wouldn't put it past her to do such a thing. Trudging towards her, Russia pulled her into an embrace and let his sister soak in the smell of his scent.

"Well enough," replied Russia. "I had fun threatening them, though they finally let me go once they realised who they were dealing with."

"Good," purred Belarus, stroking his back. "We have more important matters to tend to besides foolish American policemen anyways, right, dearest Vanyusha?"

"Indeed," said Russia, and disentangled himself from the hug before he could start to feel stiff. Belarus detached herself with reluctance, and still remained a bit too close for Russia's liking, but Russia tolerated it, knowing better than to take what few relationships he had for granted. "Could you bring me up to speed, please?"

Belarus nodded. "Poland and Lithuania have both been reprimanded harshly by their bosses, and I expect that you will be as well." A pause, and then a slight quiver of the lips. Yet Belarus maintained her cool façade. "It was lucky that you did not get injured the way America was. I think it would take at least a month for him to recover. Imagine if it had happened to you - it would be so horrible for you to get stuck in a hospital for that long, wouldn't it?"

Russia grimaced, vaguely recalling his own discomfort in being stuck in a hospital bed a long time ago. "A month is a long time for a nation's injuries to heal, especially during peacetime. America was quite stupid for not wearing a seatbelt."

"He is an idiot," remarked Belarus, wearing a joyful sneer. She grabbed Russia by the arm. "Come on, let's go home."

But Russia refused to budge. He stood there, with a deeply contemplative look on his face.

"Vanyusha?"

"Go ahead. I want to run an errand."

"Then I shall meet you at the hotel, brother."

Russia left, and Belarus watched as her brother faded away underneath the darkness of the night.

Sherman was absolutely certain that if Mr Peabody were to know about what he and Penny were getting up to right now, he would blow his top and ground Sherman for an eternity, for what he and Penny were doing right now was absolutely more dangerous than anything he had ever done before. If Penny hadn't been persistent in persuading him to follow her, Sherman would have been fast asleep by now.

"Just because you're not going to do it, doesn't mean that I'll go home," threatened Penny. "Alfred needs us, Sherman. He's going to be all alone and afraid in that hospital, not knowing what medicines they're pumping into him and in more pain than that kid who flew off the swing set at school. It was a mistake, Sherman, bringing an eighteenth-century man like him into the future. How could we have let it happen?"

Sherman groaned. "Go to sleep, Penny. I'm worried about Alfred too, but it's too dangerous for us to go to the hospital all alone in the middle of the night. We're kids. What if someone creepy tries to ambush us?"

"Look, Sherman," said Penny, having given up on sounding forceful. "Wait for me at the foot of your apartment. If you're not there by then, I'm going without you, whether you like it or not!"

"But Penny, Mr Peabody –"

"- isn't home, as you said. I'm almost here, are you coming or not?"

Sherman muttered an inaudible "yes", and then hung up. He was wide-eyed and breathless for a second, as he thought about the prospect of rebelling against Mr Peabody's rules. He had no idea when Mr Peabody would be back from whatever it was that he was doing. Would he be able to make it back home before Mr Peabody did?

On one hand, he could just be the good boy. On the other hand, he could be the brave boy who left home during the middle of the night for the sake of his friend and a guy from the wrong century.

There wasn't any time set up a dummy underneath his quilts (not that Mr Peabody would be fooled), and Penny said that she was coming in just a few minutes' time, so Sherman quickly went to his wardrobe, donned a jacket, and then went downstairs to the ground floor, where Penny was standing at the side of the road, leaning against a white car.

"Let's go," said Penny, opening the door for Sherman. The driver, a pockmarked young man (a neighbour who had been blackmailed by Penny to carry out the chauffeuring), gave them both a funny look, but ultimately shrugged and paid them no mind. And then off they went.

"I'm saw-ree," said the receptionist, who sounded like anything but sorry, "but only family members can visit Mr Alfred Jones at the moment."

"But that's not fair!" screeched Penny. "We were with him during the accident! And he doesn't have any family too!"

At least, not while he's in the twentieth century, Sherman thought, suddenly feeling quite awful about the entire situation. No parent would ever want to see their child injured to the point of broken ribs and damaged grey matter – how would Alfred's own family feel if they had known about what had happened to him?

"I'm sorry, miss, but that's our policy," stated the receptionist plainly. "The only thing you can do right now is to give Alfred your well wishes."

"Then I wish Alfred would get better soon and that his friends Penny and Sherman are worried about him!" Penny snapped. She stormed off in a huff, hands balled up into fists. Sherman rose from the spot where he had been sitting on the floor and ran after her.

"Penny!"

Penny stopped. Her back trembled, and the sound of her breathing was heavy. Sherman caught up with Penny and reached for her shoulder. She spoke with a soft voice, "Do you think Alfred's going to be ok?"

"Of course he will," said Sherman. "There are doctors here to help him, and the level of technology in our time is much better than what people had two hundred years ago."

"But Sherman, there was so much blood on the road," whimpered Penny. "What if not even the doctors could help him?"

Sherman couldn't say with any ounce of certainty that Alfred was going to be ok. He knew well enough that only seeing Alfred in the flesh would dispel any fears they had about his wellbeing, but there was nothing he could do about it, nothing he could say to make things better. He swallowed a lump in his throat and forced himself to respond.

"Trust me, Penny, things are going to be ok," said Sherman, shaking her shoulder. "Let's go home."

Penny turned around. Her countenance was wobbly and her eyes swelled from the build-up of tears behind her lids. "Okay," she said, sniffing.

On their way out, a man wearing a familiar-looking beige coat and pinkish scarf swooshed past them. He was holding sunflowers, and Sherman swore that he had seen that smile somewhere before. It took exactly two seconds for it to register in Sherman's head. He remembered the man with the square-shaped face and ominous purple eyes. The memory came back to him.

"Comrade Америка?" went the man who had just gotten out of his Mazda, seemingly oblivious to the two children screaming and sobbing nearby. When Alfred didn't answer, he picked up Alfred and cradled his head, humming an old Slavic lullaby.

The Mazda-driver put up very little of a fight when the police arrived, and he was seemingly unfazed by the bloodstains on his clothes. He smiled widely.

"You arrest me, no problem," said the man in a thick Russian accent. "I've had my fun already."

Sherman snapped back into reality. This was indeed the man whose car had crashed into their taxi – but why had he been released from police custody so quickly? Wasn't this guy just chasing cars the other day? Sherman felt an indignant feeling rise in him. A person who deliberately put others in danger didn't deserve to walk away scot free from their crimes.

He gave Penny a nudge, and then pointed in the direction of the tall Russian man. Penny looked at him, not comprehending until he caught sight of the man, and then opened her eyes in surprise.

"It's him!"

Somehow, they both knew that they both wanted to confront this man. They darted towards him without hesitation and clamped onto his long legs like little warriors charging into battle, causing the Russian to gasp as soon as they made contact with him.

"какого черта!" exclaimed the Russian. He looked downwards at the source of his near heart attack to find two little children who had fastened themselves onto his legs.

"Mister!" barked Sherman. "You nearly killed our friend on the road with your reckless driving!"

The man turned red in embarrassment and crossed his arms. He spoke in a stern tone. "Little подсолнух, why don't we settle this somewhere else? You are making me look bad in front of so many people!"

"Nu-uh," said Penny, "not unless you apologise."

He growled, and the hand that had been holding the bouquet of sunflowers shot down for both the kids to see. A message in plain white paper was attached to the bouquet, written very neatly for them to see. Attached to the piece of paper was a newspaper clipping depicting the aftermath of the car accident, with one of the pictures being of Alfred lying in a pool of his own blood.

Dear Fredya,

I hope you get well soon! You should have seen have vulnerable you looked lying down on the road like that! I have pasted some cute pictures onto this get well card for you to see, hee hee! :) Do not strain yourself, ok?

Your mortal enemy, Vanya
Иван Брагинский

Sherman spluttered when he read the last few lines of the message. He couldn't believe it. "Vanya – you're Alfred's mortal enemy?"

Penny gave Sherman an alarmed look and mouthed the words 'mortal enemy' again, while the Russian man just sighed.

"Firstly, you do not call me Vanya," he warned. "Call me Ivan or Mr Braginsky instead. But I'll give you the benefit of doubt since you are just ignorant American children. And yes – "Ivan chortled "- Alfred and I are indeed mortal enemies. At least, we were, many years ago. But our relationship has thawed considerably since then. Now, we are just frenemies. We go out to drink a lot whenever he's in my homeland and reminisce about how we nearly ended the world."

"Oh," went Sherman, who was just getting even more confused by the second.

Logically, there was no way Alfred should have had any history with Ivan Braginsky. Alfred was just an American soldier from 1777. Ivan, being from the present time, shouldn't have had any connections with a man from 1777 unless he was a time traveller too, and that was highly unlikely, thought Sherman. And this was the second time someone had mistaken Alfred for being someone else. Once was a coincidence, twice was chance. Except that said chance was highly, highly, unlikely. He realised that something was amiss, but he didn't know what.

"Do you want to go visit Alfred with me?" asked Ivan, withdrawing the flowers into his chest.

"Well," went Penny, the words quickly rushing out from her mouth, "we tried already, except that they didn't allow any visitors except for family."

Ivan shrugged, nonchalant. "That probably means he's not lucid enough to speak, then. Not worth my time. I'll just leave the flowers to the receptionist."

He did just that, and once the deed was done, Ivan returned to Sherman and Penny, patting his hands on his thighs. A satisfied grin was plastered over his face.

"Little children, would you like a lift home? I want to do something nice for you."

The two nodded with great vigour, grateful that this stranger was offering to drive them home. "Thank you, Mr Braginsky!"

And so, they followed Ivan to his car and entered the back of his car. They strapped on their seatbelts, well aware of Ivan's dangerous driving, and then they both relayed the addresses of their home to Ivan. Ivan promised them that he would drive more carefully, and that put the minds of Penny and Sherman at ease as they began to settle into the car. Soon enough, they were on the move, and Penny and Sherman both fell asleep, as a result of having stayed up all night long to do their daring visit to the hospital. But little did they know of the nasty shock they would wake up to the next morning…

Footnotes:

- In the Hetalia fandom, lots of people have Russia being referred to as Vanya, especially by his sisters and whoever he's being shipped with. That's what's called a diminutive, and I think most people already know that. But as it turns out, while I was googling whether or not it would be suitable for Russia to call Alfred Fredya, there are a crapton of Russian diminutives all meaning different things. So the -ya thingy is apparently used for friends, which is why I used 'Fredya' and 'Vanya' in Russia's note. However, I had Belarus use Vanyusha instead (which I took from a list online) because apparently that's more intimate, and that would fit better considering the sort of relationship that Belarus and Russia have. But if I used the wrong diminutive, please correct me, native speakers of Russian!

- Америка (America) means America

- какого черта (kakogo cherta) means what the hell!

- Подсолнух (podsolnukh) means sunflower

Next chapter will most likely be focusing on Mr Peabody as well as America's whereabouts. I might add a part about the FACE family if I think I can fit it in. I still have the plot, so yeah. I hope that this was of reasonable quality to you. I haven't watched Mr Peabody and Sherman in ages because I don't have the DVD anymore, so I think I might have screwed up their characterisation by now.

Have a nice day, my lovely readers!