Homeless (a Hetalia Fanfic, Book Three)

Chapter 20~! Repair The Ship

You would expect to hear a steady beeping as your eyes opened to reveal you were in a bed you didn't recognize as your own. By that, I mean a hospital bed. Weirdly enough, I didn't hear beeping. There weren't even any monitors or machines in the room.

The first thing I heard was Willow muttering to herself like she thought she was alone. 'Haha, surprise...' I thought with a smirk as I blinked a couple of times to clear my blurry vision. A quick glance downward showed that my prosthetic was missing yet again. Vale probably took it for repairs again.

"Hey," I said first, surprising myself with my dry and cracked voice.Willow gasped almost inaudibly and her grey-green eyes rose from her hands to meet my own. 

"You're awake!"'

"No, this is all a dream," I rasped cheekily in answer. "Where-- ahem-- are we?"

"We're back in Switzerland, in our little base of sorts," my little sis explained. "How does your shoulder feel?"

"It doesn't hurt at all," I replied. 

"Good," she said, rising from her seat and leaning over me. Suddenly, her palm smacked my injury and I shrieked. "That's for not telling me you got shot!"

"What-- You were right there!" I exclaimed. My voice was all better now, at least, even if my shoulder throbbed painfully.

"You didn't tell me, though! I didn't see you reacting to the pain or anything, and then you go and punch through concrete cells like it's nothing!" Willow raged. "You have got to be kidding me, Alice."

"Hey, I can't help it if my pain tolerance is abnormally high," I countered, using my left hand to push her back into the chair she had pulled right up to my bedside. "But... what were you muttering about? Is something wrong?"

"Uh..." she said dumbly, looking unsure of what to do or say.

I made it easier for her. "Tell me what's on your mind, Wisp. Seriously. I'm sorry for not saying that I got shot, okay? Now you have to tell me what's wrong with you."

"... I used my magic," she said softly, like she still was having a hard time believing it, "in front of everyone. In front of... of Iceland..."

"Iceland?" I echoed, raising an eyebrow. "Why so worried specific him?"

"Great English," Willow said, one corner of her mouth twitching up briefly. "Well... Okay, I'll just tell you. Iceland is really, really resistant to magic. He's hated it ever since he met Norway, basically. I didn't tell him right away because... I was afraid of what he'd think of me. So I avoided telling him for an entire year."

"... I had no idea you two were so close," I commented as I sat up a little bit more on the inclined bed and looked at her seriously. 

"We've been dating for a little over three years now," Willow admitted to me in a mumble, and my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. 

"Three year--! And you thought my running away was a big deal! You have a boyfriend?"

Wisp glared at me without amusement. "Shut up. And yes, we've been going out for a little while now. It hasn't been all that serious, but we were going at our own pace and then... then I got these powers and I had no idea what to do. I considered breaking it off with him because I was so afraid of what he would say, but I didn't have the courage to do even that much."

She let out a short, humorless laugh. "Some 'heroic American' I turned out to be..."

"Oh, whoa there. Whoa," I interjected instantly. "Do not even go there, Sis. You were probably braver for sticking with it all this time, even if you were scared. Am I right? Don't answer that, I know I'm right." My little sister looked over at me helplessly as I continued to talk. "So Iceland doesn't like magic-- big deal! If he really loves you for you, then he would get over it and just suck it up."