Epilogue

Waking up, the Brit noted he wasn't in his room anymore. He smelled disinfectant in the air and unlike his blue and gray room, this room was plain white and full of light. His guess was that he was in hospital.

The first thought he had, however, was the person who brought him here. For all common sense, if he had been someone who would have seen him like that, he'd have just gone away and ignored it all.

Thus, this person must be an idiot. It could have been Italy*... He's always been clueless about everything...

The door was swungen open. The person on it practically ran toward the Brit's bed.

"Are you alright, England**?" The man had sunny blond hair, lighter blond than Arthur and blue, concerned eyes behind the glasses. Arthur blinked couple times before he realized who were talking to him.

"Alf- America...?" He asked quietly. To be honest, he was terrified that he of all people had seen him like that. Well, that didn't stop him from being sarcastic: actually, he often hid his real feelings behind it.

"I'm at the hospital. What do you think, you git?"

For a second, Arthur thought he saw hurt in the other's eyes.

"Ya know what I mean! Why did ya even do somethin' as dumb as that?", Alfred asked with anger. His rage was rising so much that his accent was becoming clearer.

"None of your business. I'm mature enough to take care of myself and you don't need to intervene the business which doesn't bloody belong to you!"

"Doesn't seem so", the other said and sat down next to the bed. Alfred tried not to show his hurt and changed the subject to somewhere else so his voice wouldn't crack. "Haven't ya even heard that nations can't die?"

"Where did you hear that? I haven't even hear that someone has ever tried to commit-" He silenced himself. Arthur couldn't say it out loud, it was humiliating enough to be in a situation like this.

'On the other hand, I didn't have any nightmares... Is Britannia finally gone?'

"I called China when you were still sleeping. I asked him if he knew about nations deaths and he said it's impossible cuz our bodies heal and stuff", Alfred said and tried to gave the Brit a small smile but obviously failed.

"What about Germania and others? They died." Arthur tried to find a logical argument to their immortality.

"I dunno, he said something that they're not gone... they're still in their heirs' bodies... Some personality addition..."

Ah. Now he understood why he had so much pain, why nothing helps.

'Being a nation is a curse. You can't forget, you can't trust anyone, you can't die. All you can do is to bear the pain until you're a sad being who isn't sure if he truly lives.'

"Hey, England... Why did you tried to commit you-know-what?", Alfred asked quietly and hesitated with the last words.

'England... Nowadays he always calls me that... Now that I think about it, he never had called me by my human name. We haven't been too close, have we.'

"It's none of your business, America", he said and emphasize the last word. Seeing the other's uncharacteristically concerned face, he continued with whisper: "I just... wanted to end it all. I'm historically an old nation and even if it doesn't seem so... I have regrets, too."

'Like the time I was alone in the world and pressured my brothers to give their lands to me...'

'Like the time I was alone and I wanted company and created an empire.'

'Like the time I was willing to give in to Britannia who hurt everyone and made them unreachable.'

'Like the time I was ready to go to New World and conquered America and hurt the most important person to me.'

He could go on and on but instead he locked his weary green eyes with normally sparkling blue ones.

'You're really disgusted, aren't you. You'd want to go home but because of your image you can't leave me. You'd have never wanted to know my dark side.'

He turned his head away and shut his eyes.

'It's all right. It's better for both of us that you'll abandon me again. I won't be waiting and you'll be happy with your life.'

"Why?" The sudden question surprised the older nation and made him turn his face to look at the American. "Everyone else has gotten over with their past, many of them have even befriended with their ex-enemies."

"That is the one point: you'll never know who earns your trust", Arthur smiled sadly. He remembered the time he trusted in the younger form of America. He lifted his gaze and saw how Alfred's eyes had widened. Now he knew.

"You can go now. I can be by myself, so if you left now..."

... So you can be alone again and drown yourself in self-pity? Pushing them away as always. Coward. Just face the truth.

Arthur started shaking in fear. The dark voice hadn't gone away and it always showed up when he was alone. He covered his ears and curled to a ball.

"Shut it-Shut it-SHUT IT!", he screamed. After remembering Alfred, he referred to the other nation: "And you go away! I don't want you here, America!"

You push them away so that you wouldn't get hurt. Or...

Arthur was almost crying. Now that he hadn't any way to escape he felt helpless.

... you must be masochist. You push them away so you can GET hurt.

He couldn't take it anymore. Arthur screamed and tried to get up from his bed and try to run away even if he knew it was pointless. When he was raising up, strong arms grabbed his and pull him back on the bed.

"England! You can't get up, you're still healing", he tried to get the Brit's attention but Arthur kept screaming. "ENGLAND! What's wrong with you?"

The American hugged the shorter man but it didn't seem to have a calming effect.

"England! Calm down! England!"

The shorter male grabbed America's shirt and sounded like a broken CD-player: "Make him go away make him go away make him go away-"

"ARTHUR!"

The older went quiet and looked at Alfred. Britannia was silenced.

"What-", the older one tried to ask but the sunny blond hugged him more tightly.

"Arthur, it's not like everyone tries to hurt you. Sure you were a bastard sometimes but that wasn't you. That wasn't the real you! I'm not an idiot, I see when you try to hide your true self, I've known you long enough", Alfred said and tightened his grip.

"Do you realise that there's people who cares about you? Kiku, Francis, your brothers- I care about you!"

The Brit stared at the wall in front of him. Even though he didn't saw the other's face he knew Alfred was sad because of his cracking voice.

"You're not... disgusted?" were the only words that left him. The other man simply shook his head.

"I could never... Arthur, I like you! I LOVE you!", the other practically yelled. Arthur's body froze. He didn't know what to do. He could either push the other way and say he didn't feel the same and told him to go away or confess. Even though he had two viable options, he did neither. He just stared at the white wall as if it was something interesting.

Hearing no objections, Alfred crashed their lips together and closed his eyes. The kiss was uncertain and gentle but after a moment Arthur relaxed and kissed back. Alfred was encouraged to deepen the kiss but not too much to let the kiss to become less tender and affectionate.

After Arthur pull away and both of them breathed rapidly, Alfred heard a weak response; "I love you, too..."

Alfred smiled gently and hugged the other. "I won't ever leave you again, if there will ever be a war, I'll be by your side, Artie~" 'Artie' growled to the nickname but let it slide.

And when the WWII came, they were on the same side. After the disastrous war, 'Britannia' was forever gone.

XxXxXxX

*In WWI, Italy allied with Germany, but later the land of pasta allied with allies against Germany.

** I decided to let him call Iggy that. They're not really that close yet, so he can't call him 'Artie' or 'Arthur'... And what I've heard about stereotype that ppl in the US don't know about other countries... So calling him by England would be pretty understandable for him cuz the whole series are formed by stereotypes... so I do NOT try to offense everyone! Especially when I don't know much of even my country's own capital even though I live so near to it... ¤_¤ I really suck. And the reason why Iggy calls him America is just cuz 'the US' is pretty tricky name...

OH! Look at me! For once I created a) two-shot b) angsty fic c) NO ONE DIED IN MY ANGSTY FIC! IT EVEN HAD HAPPY ENDING! D8 I really surprised myself.