'ᴜɴᴅᴇʀ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴇᴀᴛʜᴇʀ' || ʜᴇᴛᴀʟɪᴀ

5

"Eleven?!"

"And possibly still counting, unfortunately."

"And you've already called for an emergency meeting tomorrow?"

"Ja, this is a lot more serious than we originally anticipated. It looks like you might be here for a while. Sorry, America."

"No, it's cool," Alfred replied, "I just feel bad that I can't really help at the moment, that's all. Uh, forgive me for asking, but . . . How's Prussia doing?"

"Not good," Ludwig answered, letting out a pained sigh, "but he isn't getting worse . . . I suppose that's something . . ."

For no more than five minutes, the two nations had been discussing the cases that had already been reported, and tried to establish a list of who they deemed as immune to whatever was spreading across Europe, and who wasn't. A piece of thin white paper sat on the table between Alfred and Ludwig with ten names inked onto the page, along with a small variety of symptoms and ailments.

Italy - cold
Ukraine - fever?
Austria - headaches
Prussia - cold
Netherlands - headaches, dizzy spells?
France - cold
Spain - coughing, sore throat
Denmark - headaches
Norway - coughing
Finland - cold
England- cold

It had been about thirty hours since the first serious case came to his attention. In that time, Germany had managed to contact most of Europe, and the list of affected personifications was proportionally short, to his relief. Less than a quarter of the continent was ill in one way or another, and he had a feeling that most of them had come into contact with the mysterious infection by now, which meant that the list wouldn't grow much more, if at all.

"Alright, so what do we do in the meantime?" Alfred asked, breaking the eery silence and glancing at a clock on the wall. "We have eighteen hours until the meeting starts tomorrow."

Ludwig nodded/ "You're not obliged to stay in Berlin, but you can if you want. I will just have to warn you that Italy, Prussia and Austria are all here too, and I have a duty of care now."

"Do you want me to stay and help?"

"Like I said, it's not really necessary. Hungary is helping too."

"If you're sure . . . I just feel bad for leav--"

"Look, I know there is somewhere else you probably want to be, America. If I were you, I wouldn't waste any more time sitting here and talking to me," Ludwig commented.

Alfred gave a small smile and agreed, thanking the German but also telling him to call if anything new happened or if he needed extra help. They said farewell, and within half an hour, Alfred was back at the private airport ready to fly back to England.

When he arrived in the tea nation, it was about 7pm. It was only a short drive in a hired car to Arthur's modestly grand house, along narrow country roads with virtually no signs of other vehicles travelling in the area. Alfred always liked those sorts of journeys. The countryside was so peaceful, green, and he firmly believed that there was no countryside quite like England's. It's one reason why he visited more often these days.

He knocked on the front door three times and waited a moment, before repeating the rhythm. There were no obvious signs of movement of the other side, and there weren't lights on anywhere in the house. Alfred paused for a second. Then he remembered. He stepped to the small flower pot that sat further to the left of the door and carefully tipped it, reaching a hand under it in search of a spare key. He felt it and grabbed it, placing the pot down again and heading to the door. The key went in. The door unlocked.