Unsinkable

AN: This story is based on the 1997 movie, Titanic. This will be AU and I will be using the real names of the characters. I have no idea what urged me to write something so so… err.. cheesy and sappy such as this. The thing is, I love period movies, and Titanic was one of them, one of the most beautifully made movies in history if you ask me. Even if the story of Jack and Rose is all fiction, it still blends in somehow. The first time I've ever watched Titanic was 13 years ago (Omg yes.. it has been that long already) and I was about 8 years old. It impacted me even then… and until recently when I saw Titanic running in HBO one day, I never in my life imagined the true beauty of the story now that I'm much older and could understand more.

Sooooo… lets just hope I don't fail at this.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN HETALIA. IF THAT WERE SO THEN I SHALL BE "THE KING OF THE WORLD!"… LITERALLY. XD

Chapter I: Departure

Southampton, England, April 10, 1912. It is almost noon on sailing day.

The gleaming white superstructure of a majestic ship rises mountainously beyond the rail, and above that the buff-colored funnels stand against the sky like the pillars of a great temple. Crewmen move across the deck, dwarfed by the awesome scale of the steamer. A crowd of hundreds blackens the pier next to ship like ants on a jelly sandwich. On the pier horse drawn vehicles, motorcars and lorries move slowly through the dense throng. The atmosphere is one of excitement and general giddiness. People embrace in tearful farewells, or wave and shout bon voyage wishes to friends and relatives on the decks above.

A white Renault, leading a silver-gray Daimler-BENZ, pushes through the crowd leaving a wake in the press of people. Around the handsome cars people are streaming to board the ship, jostling with hustling seamen and stokers, porters, and barking WHITE STAR LINE officials. The Renault stops and the liveried driver scurries to open the door for a handsome young man dressed in a stunning white and ecru suit, with a bowler hat. He had salt and pepper blond hair in a slightly messy crop, handsome, regal of bearing with piercing green eyes.

"I don't see what all the fuss is about." The young man said "It doesn't look any bigger than the Mauretania."

"You can be biased about some things, dear Arthur, but not about Titanic." said another handsome man beside him, with a crisp French accent. His long blonde hair was tied on his back with an elegant bow. "It's over a hundred feet longer than Mauretania, and far more luxurious. It has squash courts, a Parisian cafe... even Turkish baths."

The Frenchman turns and gives his hand to another gentle man, who descends from the touring car being him. This one was bespectacled and has dark brunette hair with a beauty mark on his chin. He stood poised with his expensive mahogany walking stick while staring up skeptically at the ship before them.

"Your son is much too hard to impress, Roderich." commented the Frenchman.

"Oh think nothing of it Francis." said the bespectacled man while still gazing upon the Titanic. "So this is the ship they say is unsinkable?"

"It is unsinkable. God himself couldn't sink this ship." said Francis, speaking with the pride of a host providing a special experience.

This entire entourage of rich people is impeccably turned out – the young man, his bespectacled father and the flamboyant Frenchman who was apparently the young English man's fiancée. A quintessential example of the Edwardian upper class, complete with servants.

Francis checks his golden pocket watch and rubs his chin. "We'd better hurry. This way, gentlemen."

He indicates the way toward the first class gangway. They move into the crowd. Their maids hustle behind them, laden with bags of their masters' most recent purchases... things too delicate for the baggage handlers. The Frenchman leads the way, weaving between vehicles and handcarts, hurrying passengers (mostly second class and steerage) and well-wishers. Most of the first class passengers are avoiding the smelly press of the dockside crowd by using an elevated boarding bridge, twenty feet above. They pass a line of steerage passengers in their coarse wool and tweeds, queued up inside movable barriers like cattle in a chute.

"Honestly, Francis, if you weren't forever booking everything at the last instant, we could have gone through the terminal instead of running along the dock like some squalid immigrant family." complained the bespectacled man.

"All part of my charm, Roderich." said Francis. "At any rate, it was my darling fiancee's beauty rituals which made us late."

"You told me to change." reasoned Arthur.

"I couldn't let you wear black on sailing day, mon cheri. It's bad luck." His fiancée said with a wink.

"I felt like black." The young man sulked.

"Here I've pulled every string I could to book us on the grandest ship in history, in her most luxurious suites... and you act as if you're going to your execution." The Frenchman pointed out.

Arthur looked up as the hull of Titanic looms over them...a great iron wall, Bible black and silver. Francis motions him forward, and he enters the gangway to the D Deck doors with a sense of overwhelming dread. Francis' hand closes possessively over Arthur's arm. He escorts him up the gangway as the black hull of Titanic swallows them.

It was the ship of dreams... to everyone else. Arthur thought in his head, To me it was a slave ship, taking me to America in chains. Outwardly I was everything a well brought up gentleman should be. Inside, I was screaming.

###

There was a screaming blast from the mighty triple steam horns on Titanic's funnels, bellowing their departure warning.

From several blocks away, a view of the Titanic could be seen towering above the terminal buildings like the skyline of a city. The steamer's whistle echoes across Southampton even reverberating inside of a smoky pub. It is crowded with dockworkers and ship's crew. Among the dirty wooden tables and chairs, a poker game is in progress. Four men, in working class clothes, play a very serious hand.

An American and an Italian exchange a glance as the other two players argue in Swedish. The American, Alfred Jones, was a lanky drifter with his blond hair a little long for the standards of the times. He is also unshaven, and his clothes are rumpled from sleeping in them. He is an artist, and has adopted the bohemian style of art scene in Paris. He is also very self-possessed and sure-footed for 19, having lived on his own since 15. He looks at the two men with his bright blue eyes, one Swedish, one Finnish.

"You stupid fishhead, Berwald. I can't believe you bet our tickets." said the Finnish man in Swedish.

"You lost our money, Tino. I'm just trying to get it back. Now shut up and take a card." said the serious Swedish man.

"Hit me again, Berwald." said the American in his jaunty Swedish. Alfred takes the card and slips it into his hand, his blue eyes betray nothing. The Italian next to him licks his lips nervously and refuses a card.

There was a stack in the middle of the table of bills and coins from four countries. This poker game has been going on for a while. Sitting on top of the money are two 3rd class tickets for RMS Titanic. The Titanic's whistle blows again out side. A final warning.

"It's the moment of truth boys," The American spoke up. "Somebody's life's about to change."

The Italian puts his cards down. So do the Swedes. Alfred holds his close.

"Let's see..." Alfred's eyes trailed over to all three of them. "Feliciano's got niente.. Tino, you've got squat. Berwald, uh oh... two pair... hmmm." He turns to his Italian friend. "Sorry Feliciano."

"What sorry?" The Italian starts to panic and puts his cards down. "What you got? You lose my money? Ma va fa'n culo testa di cazzo- !"

"Sorry, you're not gonna see your fratello again for a long time..." Alfred cut in before the Italian goes into hysterics. He slaps a full house down on the table and grins "'Cause you're goin' to America! Full house boys! Whoo hooo!"

"Porca Madonna! YEEAAAAA!" the Italian rejoiced. The table explodes into shouting in several languages. Alfred rakes in the money and the tickets.

"Sorry boys." Alfred says to the Swedes, "Three of a kind and a pair. I'm high and you're dry and..." he turns to Feliciano and smiles, "we're going to—"

"L'AMERICA!" the Italian finished and dances.

Alfred kisses the tickets, then jumps on Feliciano's back and rides him around the pub. It's like they won the lottery!

"Goin' home..." Alfred said enthusiastically. "to the land o' the free and the home of the real hot-dogs! On the TITANIC! We're ridin' in high style now! We're practically goddamned royalty, ragazzo mio!"

"You see?" Feliciano joined his friend's rejoicing, "Is my destinio! Like I told you. I go to l'America! To be a millionaire!" In his excitement he speaks to the pubkeeper and hugs him. "Capito? I go to America!"

"No, mate," said the pubkeeper. "Titanic goes to America. In five minutes."

"Shit! Come on, Felli!" Alfred grabs for their stuff then grabs Feliciano by the collar. "Come on!" He then turns back and bows at the pub's occupants. "It's been grand." And with that, they run for the door.

"'Course I'm sure if they knew it was you lot comin', they'd be pleased to wait!" the pub keeper shouted after them in good humor.

Al and Feliciano, carrying everything they own in the world in the kit bags on their shoulders, sprint toward the pier. They tear through milling crowds next to the terminal. Shouts go up behind them as they jostle slow-moving gentlemen. They dodge piles of luggage, and weave through groups of people. They burst out onto the pier and Alfred comes to a dead stop... staring at the cast wall of the ship's hull, towering seven stories above the wharf and over an eighth of a mile long. The Titanic is monstrous.

Feliciano runs back and grabs Alfred, and they sprint toward the third class gangway aft, at E deck. They reach the bottom of the ramp just as the Sixth officer detaches it at the top. It starts to swing down from the gangway doors.

"Wait! We're passengers!" Alfred said a bit flushed and panting, he waves the tickets.

"Have you been through the inspection queue?" asked the officer.

"Of course!" he lied cheerfully "Anyway, we don't have lice, we're Americans." He glances at Feliciano, "Both of us."

"Right, come aboard." said the officer, who was getting testy and beckoned them to come in. He had the quartermaster reattach the gangway and Alfred and Feliciano came aboard. The Officer glances at the tickets, then passes Alfred and Feliciano through another officer. He hands the tickets back, eyeing Feliciano's Mediterranean looks suspiciously. Alfred was careful not to grin like a maniac and instantly grabbed Felicano's arm excitedly once the inspection is over. The two friends whoop with victory as they run down the white-painted corridors... grinning from ear to ear.

"We are the luckiest sons of bitches in the world!" Alfred said.

The mooring lines outside, as big around as a man's arm, are dropped into the water. A cheer goes up on the pier as seven tugs pull the Titanic away from the quay. Alfred and Feliciano burst through a door onto the aft well deck. They run across the deck and up the steel stairs to the poop deck. They get to the rail and Alfred starts to yell and wave to the crowd on the dock.

"You know somebody?" Feliciano looked at the other in curiosity.

"Of course not. That's not the point." said Alfred, he turns to the crowd albeit knowing no one and waves enthusiastically. "Goodbye! Goodbye! I'll miss you!"

Grinning, Feliciano joins in, adding his voice to the swell of voices, feeling the exhilaration of the moment. "Goodbye! I will never forget you!"

The crowd of cheering well-wishers waves heartily as a black wall of metal moves past them. Impossibly tiny figures wave back from the ship's rails as the Titanic gathers speed. The bow wave spreads before the mighty plow of the liner's hull as it moves down the River Test toward the English Channel and the Titanic finally sails for the first time…

To be continued.

AN: D; I hope I didn't disappoint anyone. Here's some notes that needs some clearing up.

Roderich being Arthur's "father"?: Well, I couldn't exactly choose who's gunna be the strict mother who rules with an iron fist. It can't be Rome or even Germania.. And Ludwig is strict, but he's too butch and manly to be Ruth. So I opted for Austria since he has class and has an air of an aristocrat.

The lucky handed poker game with Sweden and Finland: Well, if you watch the movie again Jack bet against two Swedish men in that poker game so I put them there. XD They're a bit OOC, please forgive me. oTL Also! Tino can speak in Swedish cuz Finland is known to be bilingual and they could speak both Finnish and Swedish.

Feliciano being Al's best friend?: In the movie Jack has this Italian best friend named Fabrizio. I was choosing between Romano and Feliciano... and Felicano won cuz Fabrizio is a bit clueless with everything. XD

Ok, I think that's all. Please remember that THIS IS AN AU and do not really pertain to any of the real countries. Tell me what you guys think and tell me if I should continue this! 8D