literature

aph: God Bless America pt I

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Literature Text

1] Beginnings

There is nothing but the plains, the sky--bright, clear blue like his eyes--and the both seem to go on forever. He doesn't know where he is, who is, but that's alright with him. As soon as his tiny eyes opened, he knew it was all his. From the mountains, to the prairies, and to the ocean, white with foam. It was his. It was his home and it was entirely perfect.

3] Drama

He peaks over his elder's shoulder, resting his soft palms carefully against the cotton of the other's shirt. "England?" he asks softly, nudging the sleeping gentleman carefully. He gets an inquisitive grunt in response. "Are you awake?"

The British Empire blinks his green eyes open. We match, America thinks to himself, Mine are the sky and ocean and his are the grass, trees and Earth.  As his guardian mutters that if he wasn't awake earlier, he is now, the little colony watches as he rubs a hand against his sleepy eyes. A stifled yawn follows.

"Did you need something, America?"

For you to stay longer, the tiny boy silently answers. He was going to ask the taller nation to go outside and play tag with him before it gets dark out but now his blue eyes have already found something to focus his attention on. A leather bound book in England's lap that must have slipped from his grip when he fell asleep. He points to the book. "You haven't read that one to me yet."

"I'm not quite sure it's appropriate for a child like yourself."

"What's it about?"

" It's about a man by the name of Macbeth, a Thane who would become King of his country through lies, murder and deceit."  Before the blonde haired angel can ask, he adds, "It might scare you."

"I'm not scared," America huffs. "I'm brave enough to stay all alone while you leave me and go back home." It's half a lie; oft times when his guardian is gone young Alfred spends his time amongst his Native American neighbors (the Abenaki in particular). As far as he is concerned, their stories of bears that kill entire villages and underwater serpents that flood the Earth are by far scarier because they are so much nearer to him than whatever horrors might await for him in the book he's pointing it to. "Read it to me? Please?" He throws in that smile he knows England won't be able to resist.

Sighing, the elder picks up his book. "From the start or my place?"

"Wherever you left off," the tiny nation chirps, climbing onto England's lap and snuggling himself against the other's warm skin. (He doesn't notice the blush creeping across his guardian's face, just listens to the gentle beat of his heart instead.)

" 'Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder sleep,
  the innocent sleep;
Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in life's feast.' "

4] Scary

I'm dying. America chokes back a strangled sob. It hurts so bad; worse than anything he had ever experience. His throat is covered in bruises --strangled from his own hands-- and his lips are covered in scabs and blood from biting so hard into them. His can't tell left from right, up from down or night from day. All he sees is the cannon fire, the bayonets and two God forsaken colors--gray and blue. Make it stop, he begs, shaking from the pain and strange urge to throw himself into his fireplace. Make it stop. Make it stop. Please, please, pleasepleasepleaseplease!

5] Light

When the rain clears, the clouds linger for some time after. When at last they disappear, it is blinding. He shrinks away from the sun, covering his eyes and pinching them shut until he can adjust. There's a gentle and warm breeze nudging his arm down. Slowly, but surely, he blinks his eyes open and it is nothing like he has ever seen before. His plains are so much greener, his sky terrifies him and looks like it's ready to swallow him whole.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he whispers to the red clad figure he knows will never stand behind him again. "Why did you never let me see this for myself?"

6] Dark

He pretended to have a night terror. ("The ghosts are coming to kill me! Please don't leave me, Arthur. They'll get me if you do!")  He forced tears from his eyes and shook as uncontrollably as he could when he was embraced. ("Oh God, oh God, I don't want to die.") In the end, it works perfectly. He's pulled into the other's lap and he is gently pushed against the man's chest and the very heart of the British Empire (where he rightfully belongs!).

"Alfred? Are you asleep yet?"

He forces a sniffle. "N-no. Please don't leave me. I'm so scared." It is all an act but England falls for it perfectly. Soon the sea dog is tucking himself into bed with his ward quickly sliding over to make room. He keeps an arm around America even after he has fallen asleep and begun to snore. In moments like this, the harshness of his face fade away and he is nothing more than a gentle soul.

It's moments like these that America wishes would last forever because in times like these, his heart can't help but swell and throb. Arthur has never looked more beautiful.

7] Happiness

It's the sudden light and hope that fills those icy blue eyes that make him choke up.

"You came." The other looks like he's going to cry. In fact, the bloodshot rings around France's eyes indicate that he already has. "Mon dieu, I thought you'd never come. Thank--"

8] Sadness

"Don't say thank you," he interrupts. America feels dizzy and shakes his head. "I didn't come here to save you. I came here to remind you that the money you owe from my last shipment was due three months ago. I'm going to have to raise your interest rates."

France's face deadpans. It's hard for America to look at it now; the face that was once flawless and angelic is now marred with cuts and bruises. It doesn't suit him just like the harsh words that just tumbled out of America's mouth don't suit him either. To France, they make no sense at all. "W-what?"

America stiffens. He's going to hell. He's going straight down to hell one day. "You heard me," he whispers, voice cracking slightly. He looks down and pretends to ignore the metal chains around France's ankles and wrists. He has to look away before he lets his emotions get carried away, before they make him act on a whim and put the lives of every American in danger.

"You can't be serious!"

9] Balance

It was so hard to walk softly and carry a big stick when he knew his stick was hard enough to crack the skull of the bastard who was slowly killing his family.

10] Anger

"You only see 'America'! Why can't you just pretend to see 'Alfred' for once like you used to?!"

When the back of Arthur's hand collides with his face, it hurts worse than he can imagine. "Don't you dare speak to me like that, you ungrateful brat."
Yes, I realize that there is no number two. I have yet to fill the prompt for that.

A ukus drabbles series I started awhile ago that I never got around to posting here. Blink and you miss it francexamerica in the series as well. The America here is loosely based off my America. Very, very loosely. The obvious difference will appear in rev war scenes... excluding 1777. AHEM.

Anyway, historic notes:
"Drama" - Not many for this chapter. Macbeth was written in the early 17th century by William Shakespeare. England reading this to America is completely one of my headcannons for the series for... numerous reasons besides the fact that the story fits them so perfectly. Since I was asked, yes I actually do roleplay and LARP as America. Quite often, actually, he's one of my favorites to do besides Lithuania (usually as the LSSR and in the '90s as the Iron Curtain is beginning to collaspe). To answer another question, yes, in my head, Alfred did name those soldiers Arthur made for him and they're all named after characters from Othello and Macbeth (Cassio, Duncan, Fleance,) except for one named George which was named after a fisherman who would always find Alfred and tell him when Arthur's ship was coming into port.

"Scary" - The American Civil War was fought during 1861-1865. At this point in time, the United States of America primairly 'split' itself into two groups- the northern states and the southern states that declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America, eventually electing Jefferson Davis as their president. The nothern states made up the Union while the southern slave states made up the Confederacy.
At this point in time for America, the war hasn't officially started yet. He's just feeling the pain of the states seperating themselves for him.

"Light" - In 1783, Britain signed a treaty with the freshly formed United States of America to end the war. At this point, the independent colonies had already been recognized as such by the Dutch and French (whom assisted the Patriots during the war). From here on out, the Britain began to accept the new boundries of the States. The US was left to run itself, make up it's debts owed to the French and Dutch from the war, try to make up from trade exports lost by ostracizing themselves from the British and attempt to hit the ground running in learning how to run a country.

"Happiness" - During World War II, in 1940, Germany invaded France on May 10th, 1940 in a series of campaigns that would later be known as the Battle of France (also known as the Fall of France). By June 14th, German forces had occupied the city of Paris and by June 17th it was announced that France would ask to sign an armistice with Germany. The armistice was signed on June 22nd and put in effect three days later. France wasn't officially consider liberated until 1944, via the Allied Forces' invasion.

"Sadness" - The America Neutrality Acts were a series of acts passed to ensure, especially during the World Wars, that The United States of America would remain neutral. Essentially, these acts made it so that the USA would be unable to declare war on another country based on the wars going on in other countries unless the USA was attacked first. In WWII, the act was amendended so that supplies could be sent to Great Britain and France on loan, troops to China and though it wasn't a part of the Act, some American volunteers went to fight in Europe before 1941.

I honestly don't know the situation involving interest rates on the loans, and I also don't if the USA ever 'went after' France for money during the war. So there are probably some intended historic inaccuracies in this; I just wanted to write Alfred as a guilty jerk.

"Balance" - "Walk speak softly and carry a big stick." - President Theodore Roosevelt

The idea behind this quote in a nutshell essentially states that a country, or at least oft times the United States, should act as peaceful as possible while still flaunting their miltary power. Though this quote came into existence when Roosevelt added to the Monroe Doctrine to keep European out of Latin America, I thought that just slightly altered would fit American Neutrality during WWII better. It's mainly just my headcannon that Alfred absolutely wanted to join the war efforts to protect and save his old family (England, France and Canada) but England in particular and Roosevelt wouldn't allow him to put American lives at risk. The 'bastard' in this chapter refers to Germany.
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