"…Why?"

Two men faced each other, both dressed in blue. The one who had just spoken was staring at the man in front of him, a mix of shock and horror in his expression.

"It's their decision. Neither of us can argue with them." This was said by the shorter of the two firmly, but he refused to look the other in the eye.

"But why?" The man's blue eyes hardened. "Why does it have to be you? If anything, it's my fault! It should be me! I—"

"Please." The other's voice was shaking now. "You know it's not just me who has to do this. I want to stay strong until the end, rather than leaving screaming and crying."

The taller man balled his hands into fists. He was trembling. "…How can you stay so calm?" he said quietly, but raised his voice as he continued. "How can you give up so easily? Don't you care about me at all?" His eyes shined angrily with unshed tears. "You can run away! I'll help you! I… I…!"

"Alfred," the other said, almost sadly, "you know that wouldn't work."

"…But—!" The one called Alfred sobbed suddenly and rushed past the other, not looking back as he ran down the hall.

The other man, his blond hair more matted than normal after constantly running his hands through it earlier, stared after him. He made no attempt to follow.

"I'm sorry, Alfred. I'm sorry." And then, the strong, noble Queen of Spades fell to his knees, crying silently.

"Everyone, calm down! Especially you, Switzerland!" England was jerked awake by the familiar sound of yelling.

"Calm down? She's gone, Germany!" Switzerland shouted back. The English nation briefly wondered how long he had been sleeping. Apart from the early signs of the normal arguments, which were later than usual due to the absence of a certain American, everyone had seemed rather calm when he first started to drift off. Why was the room suddenly in such chaos?

"This happens, Swisse," France said calmly. "When girls reach a certain age, they start to rebel. I'm sure she'll come back soon."

"I don't know what you think of Liechtenstein," Switzerland said coldly, wielding his gun with an eerily emotionless expression, "but she would never run away. She must have been kidnapped!"

"I didn't realise you were such a drama queen…"

England sighed, trying and failing to think back to his dream. This had been happening for a while now. He had been having strange dreams—dreams filled with blue—but could barely remember what they had been about. Although, the people he saw always seemed so familiar…

The doors swung open suddenly, nearly breaking of their hinges and causing the other nations to turn around in surprise.

"America," Germany said sternly, "you're late."

"F-forget about that!" America panted. "Japan's missing!"

The other countries began whispering to each other nervously.

Germany frowned. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah! I was sleeping at his house last night so that he'd wake me up early, but he didn't so I slept in, and when I woke up I couldn't find him anywhere!" America said, obviously panicking.

He's overreacting… England thought, resting his chin in one hand and staring at America with an odd expression. He's always so paranoid… and annoying. He's also conceited, fast-food obsessed, has amazing blue ey—

The English nation nearly smacked himself. He was not thinking that. No.

He wasn't sure how long this had been going on for. It could have begun one hundred years ago to the past few days for all he cared. All England knew was that America made him feel… odd. Whenever he looked at or even thought of the blond, which ended up being a lot, his heart would beat wildly. His palms would feel clammy and he would find himself stuttering dumbly if his voice didn't fail him completely. After many visits to the doctor, and a lot of denial, England could only come to one conclusion… which only led to more denial.

Because he did not have a crush on that… that… that idiot. Especially not that idiot. The day he admitted he liked America was the day someone told England his food tasted delicious. Even though it obviously did.

"Undermining your emotions will not make them go away..."

England nearly shrieked but somehow managed to compose himself. Everyone was panicking too much to have noticed, anyway. Where the helldid that voice come from?

He sighed again. Ever since those dreams started he had felt… different. He didn't know how, exactly. Maybe it had something to do with this Alfred person. He did appear in almost all of his dreams, after all.

He squeezed his eyes shut, forcing himself to remember.

"…nd!"

In his dreams, Alfred…

"…land!"

…Had looked a lot like America…

"England!" America yelled as loud as he could. The English nation looked at him blankly, his train of thought lost.

"Wh-what do you want?" England asked, his face flushing slightly when he realised everyone was staring.

"So you really weren't listening?" America huffed but continued anyway. "Whatever. Like I've already asked you about five times, don't you think it's strange that both Japan and Switzerland's little sister with the weird name both disappeared at the same time?"

England sighed. He didn't even try to hide the fact that he was annoyed. "Look, America, I'm sure they're both fine. It's not like they're being kidnapped or-"

America's eyes widened. "Kidnapped? That's it!" he yelled excitedly. He ran to the front of the room, pushing past Germany easily. "They were kidnapped!"

A few of the more excitable nations cried out in panic.

"Verdammt, America!" Germany glared at the American coldly. "Scaring everyone is going to solve nothing! And you don't even know if they've really been kidnapped or not!"

"Where else would they have gone?" America argued. "And they have a right to be scared! Who knows who else will be taken? It could be me, or you, or… or… or even England!" He pointed at the Brit for dramatic effect.

England only shook his head sadly. I knew it I shouldn't have let him watch those detective films…

"But don't worry, everyone!" America grinned. "As the hero, I'll catch this kidnapper and find everyone who was taken!"

He's such an idiot…

"You too, England." While he wasn't looking, America had somehow crossed the room and was now standing in front of the Brit. He sounded quieter than before. "If you get kidnapped too, then I'll go and find you. I promise."

England blinked in surprise, quickly looking away. "W-what are you talking about?" Hell. He was blushing. "I'm not going to get kidnapped because there is no kidnapper in the first place!" he shouted, but didn't meet the American's gaze. They would never let him live it down if they saw his red face. "J-just sit down already"

If he had been watching, England would have seen America deflate slightly when he heard his words.

"Oh… Um… Okay…" he said, a little awkwardly.

England mentally sighed. He really needed to stop yelling at America like that. No matter how much of an idiot he was.

He tried to turn to America. "Look,"—he seemed really interested in his feet all of a sudden—"I… I didn't mean…" He trailed off. Something out of the corner of his eye had caught his attention.

A small ball of blue light was floating above the table, flickering slightly. It didn't take long for the rest of the room to see it too; either they saw the sudden blue-ish ting to the room or a more observant nation pointed it out to them.

"What…?" America was the first to speak.

The light expanded, filling the room completely.

Frantic and confused cries and shouts were heard. England had stood and was now stumbling around blindly. What the hell is happening?

Someone grabbed his arm. "Your Majesty, it's all right."

Even though the light had begun fading, England was still having trouble seeing. "Ch... China?" he asked as his vision slowly returned.

He looked across the room blearily. No, there was definitely a China-like person at the other side of the table. So, who…?

"Your Majesty, we don't have much time," the other China said urgently. "We need to leave now, while they're all distracted."

England could now see that this China was standing on the table in front of him. He was dressed mostly in blue, except for the grey spade symbols on his coat. There was a sword strapped to his side.

England stared at the man who only seemed to look like China. "Why are you calling me 'Your Majesty'?"

The other China looked at him, almost sadly. "So, you don't remember…" He tightened his grip on England's arm, pulling the Brit up onto the table with him while he was still disorientated. "Never mind. I'll explain everything when we get back home."

"England? And… China? What are you guys doing?" America seemed to have recovered already and was now running towards them.

"America—" England stopped. The other China was chanting under his breath, and… were they glowing?

America shouted something else, but it was lost as there was another flash of light. The floor seemed to vanish, and England realised he was falling…

—Chapter end (edited)