Homeless (a Hetalia Fanfic, Book Three)

Chapter 7~!

"I call a war council."

My stomach hit the floor. I froze in my tracks even before he specified, "With the state of Oregon."

"What?" I shrieked, whirling around to stare at him with a horrified expression. 

Low murmurs raced like wildfire around the room. No, no, this was the exact opposite of what I wanted to happen! A war council, with me? Was he crazy?

"Canada, are you sure?" Germany asked him seriously. The Canadian nodded firmly and moved away from the table so he could walk into the side room that was rarely used in these days.

A war council: a special right that could be claimed by warring nations. If two or more were at war with each other, they would get the chance to go into a smaller room and discuss things to try and make peace happen before things got too far out of hand. It had turned out to be a good way to avoid many wars in the past.

Of course, if you were involved in the ordeal and refused to attend the war council, you were basically declaring your intent to fight. 

If I didn't go in that room with Canada, he and Alfred would be at war automatically. It would be my fault entirely, too.

'That is low.'

I swallowed silently and moved woodenly toward the regular-sized door in the wall that was farthest from my position. As I walked, Alfred and I made eye contact and he could read the fear in my eyes. Then I remembered something and very slowly touched my middle finger to my palm, then repeated the gesture with the other palm and finger.

The American Sign Language sign for Jesus. 

He nodded, understanding what I was saying and approving the tactic. Then I followed Matthew inside the room, and the door shut behind me.

Omniscient POV~

'She's going to stay silent for as long as she can. Considering how scared she is, I think it's probably the best thing to do' America thought as he let out a breath and immediately tapped into the camera feed of the war council room. 

The room had plenty of cameras in it to make sure that the nations inside didn't spontaneously try to kill each other while they were separated from the other nations. That had definitely been attempted before. 

Inside the room were a couple of plain wooden chairs and a metal table bolted to the floor between them, so it resembled a police station's interrogation room. Matthew took the chair farthest from the door and sank down into it while Alice took a moment to compose herself before also sitting. Her hands were folded in her lap, but she was already tugging at the faux-skin cover of her metal arm. She wanted to be able to whip it off and wave her metal arm around to prove a point if she had to

He spoke first. "Alice."

She didn't say anything. Rather, she stared him down with a blank expression. 

"Alice, I didn't want to do this, but I knew you wouldn't talk to me unless I made you," he began. "So, I'm sorry for this."

Still, no reply. Matthew sighed and looked down at the table for a moment. "I would have understood if you had needed some time to recover after you fought in Kadi's mansion, Alice. Really, that would have been perfectly alright. But you left for six years. What happened to "not going anywhere," eh? We made that promise to each other, but you still left me to be a single dad for six years."

Imperceptibly, Alice bit down hard on the inside of her lip without wincing, and the pain helped her fight back tears. 

"You knew how much I didn't want to do that, especially for our kids. Why? Why did you leave for so long withoot telling anyone anything?" he asked her with both rage and heartbreak mixed together in his normally gentle voice.