*Feels that this space will feel empty without something that wastes time and space*

Again, thanks to PeaceGem4!

Hetalia does not belong to me, eh? One thing, though...Crosby does belong to me.

Violence and...well I'm assuming that if you've got this far then you're not going to be too offended XD anyway, violence and maybe swearing. And a character of my own will make a cameo appearance because I ran out of characters I have experience writing :/

"Well," Said Arthur, returning from the bathroom and plopping down on his bed once again , "It was worth it. They'll no doubt come after us again after that..." He paused and looked at Alfred (whose bed had been moved from the attic to Arthur's bedroom for the time being). "Frankly stupid move, but I think we might have time to throw them off completely, however that might be done. This has given us an advantage, I might say. We're young, we can get better more quickly than they can, and that gives us one hell of a head start." He stopped speaking and looked over at Alfred in the dimmed light, who looked pale and was perspiring furiously, chewing his thumb nail worriedly.

"I don't know." He responded after a while, "This sickness is really bringing me down emotionally. What if something happens? I don't think I could live with myself if you got in trouble for me." He looked down at the scarlet sheets and played around with a frayed edge nervously like a cat would play with a ball of string. "You've..." He sighed and shook his head, deciding to come out with it, "You've come to mean so much to me ever since you brought me in. I lost sight of how precious life and friendship were, and you brought it all back to me. And I want to thank you for that. It would be horrible beyond anything for me if you were in danger because of me."

Arthur was silent, absorbing this information slowly. Choosing his words carefully, he responded, saying "That is what I put myself in for, carrying you in that night. If I didn't want anything, possibly dangerous, to threaten me then I wouldn't have acted as I did. Saying that, I mean that I was prepared anyway. If you understand." He looked over at Alfred, who was now so agitated that the sheet was actually coming apart in his fingers. "That reminds me of that time..."

"You're not going to break into the story of your old life again, are you?"

Alfred looked at Arthur, cocking his head. "Yes, actually, I was."

"You are SO predictable."

"Where are we going?" Peter asked Alfred and Toris, trotting to keep up with them, "It looks like we're going back to them."

"We are." Explained Alfred, lowering his voice, "We have no chance of fighting them ourselves, but we can observe them for a while and see if there's something we can do."

"Sounds like a fool's errand, to me." Put in Antonio.

"Just...trust him," said Toris. "The guy is sure-" He glanced at Alfred, and re-worded it carefully, "The guy is quite sure that he knows what he's doing."

"Of course I know what I'm doing!" Alfred scoffed, hearing the conversation, "Trust me, I wouldn't be taking you all out here if I didn't." His glasses glinted in the sun and he smirked. "A hero wouldn't put his friends in trouble under any circumstances!"

"Right..." Antonio replied again, scepticism dripping from his tone.

"You can believe me," Alfred assured again, before melting into silence, watching the scenery as he walked. Everyone else did the same, not speaking a word.

Lush grass lead into dry desert once again, rocks dotted here and there, seeming to aim to trip one of the group up every few minutes. The sun glared hotly over the sand, and there were several shadows cast, moving around the people as the day went on. It was when the first shades of pink and orange began to streak the sky that Katyusha spoke up and asked if Alfred did know what he was doing. Natalia looked away, seemingly lost and slightly angry due to the long dress and slightly heeled shoes that were rather unconventional for walking in the desert.

"I know what I'm doing, I already said!"

A large dune was up ahead. They scrambled up it clumsily, using the odd sod of grass growing here and there as handholds, and they peeked over the top. Peter, having caught a glimpse first, yanked everyone back behind the shelter (although a little too forcefully) and Heracles tumbled backwards, down the dune before climbing up again. His brown hair barely tickled the sand as he stared at Peter, along with everyone else.

"They're over there. They look like they're resting or something. All their armour's gone, the horses are tied up."

"So what do we do now?"

Everyone looked at Alfred once again. He smiled nervously, his eyebrows twitching a bit, and looked over his shoulder. Nothing happened for a short while, except a vague, steady thumping in the sand below them, until a group of what could have been thousands of people coming over the top of the sand dunes. They weren't organised, not by a long shot, but they were there, and they were headed by a young man with silver dreadlocks. All of them grinned as they saw the group as they marched over the sand and the silver dreadlocked man began to jog to meet up with them.

"Nathaniel Crosby." He stated, shaking Alfred's hand, "I gathered a few more people fer ya. Though' ya migh' need it, eh?" He laughed. Alfred scowled.

"I appreciate your help, Nathaniel-"

"Call me Nat."

"Fine then, Nat." He spat, "No offense, but I thought I had gathered all the willing in the group."

Nathaniel looked behind him at everyone, shifting about, "Yeah, but then I...I sorta said a bit too loudly tha' I wan'ed to go too, after all. An' then a load'a people came up ta me an' said tha' they wan'ed ta come too. Turns ou' tha' they were jes' scared, y'see." A few men nodded, obviously embarrassed.

Alfred's blue eyes widened. "Well...I feel kind of insignificant now. That's why I'm angry."

"Oh-"

"BUT," he stressed, "That doesn't mean I don't want any of you here. Speaking of which, we just found them over there-"

Nobody seemed to be listening any more. Also, the light seemed to have changed. Alfred looked up.

"Hello, poppet."

Alfred looked up again at Arthur slowly and grinned. "It'll be alright. A hero wouldn't put his friends in trouble under any circumstances!"

"Where the bloody hell did this 'hero' nonsense come from?" Arthur asked, laughing slightly and coughing. He lay back and closed his eyes, feeling himself drift off to sleep slowly when Alfred failed to reply, only to be jolted awake by his father, bustling a little too noisily into the room. Arthur opened his eye a crack, just in time to see Gerhart bang the soup bowls on the bedside tables and shoot a glance that looked like a mix between hatred and terror at Alfred, who recoiled in fright. Arthur was too tired to challenge his father, so he just sank back into the sheets, unaware of what was going on downstairs.

-o-

"You must understand- " Said Michelle hurriedly, "We have him here now! You could come for him as soon as you're better!"

"No." Was the choked reply, "I'm never going near your house again."

"We-well..." Michelle stuttered in return, "We could...we could bring him to you. Is that fine?"

Their conversation was interrupted for a moment while Gerhart walked into the room and shut the door behind him, smiling. "Any updates on the situation?" He asked, his lips curling at the edges, flashing pristine white teeth, "Are they coming here?"

"No." His wife explained, shaking her head, "We're going to bring him to them."

"What?" Gerhart mouthed back, furrowing his brow, but staying silent for the sake of the conversation.

"Hang on!" The person on the other end of the receiver said to Michelle quickly, "We don't just want 'Alfred', as you call him."

Michelle stopped, and then laughed for a moment, "What do you mean you don't 'just want 'Alfred''? You want money? I thought it was you paying us."

"No." Was the reply, "We want your son too. Bring them both." A click, and then silence. Michelle just looked at her husband, not saying anything, quiet permeating their very bones.

"Well?" The blond asked, after a few minutes, "What do they want?"

The atmosphere was so tense you could have cut it with a knife. Michelle looked at him slowly, watched his eyebrows furrow and concentrated on that spot, breathing heavily. The tap of his foot brought her brown eyes to meet his, deep, cold. It was looking into those eyes that she revealed what was requested of them.

"They WHAT?" He said, eyes glinting dangerously, "They want our SON?"

"Yes." She breathed, simply sitting down heavily on the chair, "I don't know...why."

"I knew it..." He stated, more to himself than his wife, "I knew that boy shouldn't have been in our house. Arthur shouldn't have gotten involved in him in the first place. And he lied!" He spat like venom, "He lied to us multiple times! Can we trust him any more?"

"I don't know!" Michelle moaned back, cheeks becoming tear-stained, "I don't know who to trust, Gerhart. I don't know how many times we've been lied to...I don't know what has happened in this house over the last few days...I just don't want anything any more. And we CAN'T give them Arthur, not under any circumstances." She stopped, panting, a small river still cascading over her sun-kissed cheeks and dripping off her nose. Her husband sat down beside her, putting one arm around her shoulder, and the other wiping her face.

"Remember when we used to sit like this down by the beach in the Seychelles when we first met?"

"Yes. It was quite nice." She said, looking out at the rain pouring down on the grey grass outside, "Now we're stuck with this."

They both giggled giddily and watched a robin hop across the garden towards a small, muddy puddle, where it drank deeply, shook itself off and flew away again. Gerhart chose this time to stand up.

"Well." He said, putting on a completely expressionless face and trying to eradicate his mind of human emotion, "I guess I should go and look after them."

Michelle's eyes widened in fright, "You're going to take our son as well?"

"I don't know. I think I'll just go and take Alfred to them, speak to them, and if they say there's no alternative..." He bit his lip, trying to return to his previous, expressionless state. "I'm going anyway."

He took one last look at his wife, before nodding silently and leaving the room.

-o-

Alfred jumped awake. He had been half asleep when the noise jerked him back to consciousness, and he sighed angrily. He wasn't feeling well as it was without being interrupted when he was about to fall asleep again. He told the person who had knocked that he could come in, and he did. It was Gerhart.

"Hello." He whispered, carefully opening the door and tiptoeing into the room quietly. Spotting Arthur turned away from the door and slowly breathing, he said "Is Arthur asleep?"

"Yeah." Alfred replied, also keeping his voice lowered, "He fell asleep about an hour ago."

"Ah." Gerhart looked away, feeling incredibly bad for what he was about to do, "Never mind, then."

"'Never mind'? Never mind what?"

"I was going to take both him and you to the doctors. Food poisoning induced by his cooking has never lasted this long." He grimaced and looked downwards, "Usually, it's only a few hours, but it's been over a day. I know what!" Gerhart looked up again and smiled, "I think I should just take you, and assume that's the rule for this time, treat Arthur as you and all that, eh?"

"Hmm..." Alfred's every instinct told him that something was wrong, but his brain just couldn't pinpoint it exactly...Gerhart was holding himself too stiffly, his posture was forced and there was something in his eyes. But his mouth had a mind of it's own. "Sure. Of course I'll come."

"Good, good." Gerhart seemed to relax a little, but his spine was still rigid, "Well, I'll leave you to get dressed, and we'll leave. Remember not to wake Arthur up." He nodded slowly, looked around, and exited through the door.

Alfred got dressed, and as he was told, stayed for the most part silent, except when he fell over. Arthur raised his head a little and mumbled something groggily about Alfred and fell back asleep again. Bless.

To be honest, Alfred still really wasn't feeling well enough to go out but he felt that he should anyway, so when Gerhart met him at the door, he left with him. It was raining and the sky was grey so the pair each donned coats and left. The air smelt of sea-salt and it was only now that Alfred actually felt the need to get away urgently. He stopped walking. Gerhart didn't notice, so he carried on for a distance bfore stopping as well and looking back.

"What's wrong?"

"I...I..." He desperately tried to think of an excuse, "I'm not feeling well. Honestly, I'll be fine."

"No, you need to come with me. It's just the illness messing around with your brain, trust me."

His face didn't look very trustworthy.

"No, really-" Alfred tried to back off, "I think I should get back inside."

The taller blond's entire aura seemed to change drastically at that point, and there was a moment when pure terror overtook Alfred and stayed in waves.

"No." Gerhart said firmly, "You're coming with me." He marched smartly over and took Alfred by the arm, pulling him to the car, opening to door and pushing him in and getting in himself and locking the door. "You're coming with me." He repeated again, his voice beginning to shake a little as he pulled out of the driveway, Alfred hammering against the door in the back with his feet and arms until they bruised. It was several miles down the motorway when the thumping stopped and silence was restored in the car. Neither of them spoke for several minutes.

The landscape changed from countryside to city again, the traffic thickened and it began to rain traced the path of the drops of water with his finger and sighed, almost certain that he would never see Arthur again.

"You don't know why I'm doing this, do you?" Gerhart muttered suddenly.

Alfred faltered, unwilling to talk, but his curiosity overtook his grudge (understatement of the century) and he made a questioning noise at the back of his throat.

"It's because we, the whole family, have been long in trouble with money. We owe another group a massive sum of money, and they threatened us all. They threatened to kill us all and those who are related to us. Debt's a powerful thing, Alfred. I was stupid long ago and it's come back to me. I had everything I could ever need because of some foolish..." he stumbled, "gamble." He spat the word out like it was poison, "And you're my only way out of this. They're closely affiliated with this group and they promise to erase my debt if they can have you..." He stopped shortly.

"Yes?"

"...and Arthur."

"No." The world seemed to come crashing down on Alfred, "Not Arthur. I promised I wouldn't let him get in trouble for me!"

"And this is why I'm doing this. I'm going to talk to them, try and explain the situation...Ah." He pulled in to the side of the road, "I can't do this." He leant over the steering wheel, "I can't turn you in for us."

Alfred was completely stuck for what to say. On one hand, he could easily allow Gerhart to take him home, and in doing so, allow the whole family to get into trouble. He would get away scot-free. On the other hand, he could take Gerhart by surprise and insist that he take him to those people and demand they tell him what they wanted him and his friend for.

It didn't really take long to decide. He was a hero.

"...I think you should take me to them, but I ask one thing of you." Gerhart looked up in surprise, maybe...relief lacing the stress lines on his forehead. When he nodded, Alfred continued. "I want you to defend me until and while I speak to them. I'm going to try and find out what they want with me and my friend."

"You're sure? Are you definitely sure you want me to turn you in to them?"

"Yes."

Okay, all told ^_^. I've noticed that I'm drifting and being lazy with my writing...how many weeks since I last updated? Anyway, I'll try and get the next chapter up within the next 2 weeks. But school HAS just started, and it's the beginning of two important years, so I'm getting a lot of homework...I'll try my hardest anyway! :D

Also, one rather important thing...Reviews help me write immensely. I wrote this chapter looking at the reviews to this story, and it kind of feels like not many reading my story...I write to please everyone! My main goal is to entertain! Anyway, TL;DR, reviews are love! Spread the love!