How America Became America

23

Toris got close to Alfred, putting a hand on his shoulder, but in response it was flung off. Everyone had pity in their eyes, or at least it felt like it.

Alfred looked ready to die, or kill, or both. He looked at where the door should be and seemingly willed it into existence. He walked directly to his room.

Everyone followed through the door, but Iona stopped Matthew, Maria, and Toris. She would've stopped Natalya, but she knew not to.

"Maria," she started, "you may already know of some of the pain Alfred's been through with this, but you- all three of you- need to understand how long it took for him to tell me, the one who gave him the ticket, bits here and there. Don't go messing up all te progress he's made."

"Yeah," Atticus said slyly, appearing out of nowhere, "leave that up to me."

With that, he vanished once more, causing the four to finally walk through the door. Matthew and Maria decided to go check on their family member who was locked away.

"Ama?" Maria tired as she knocked. "Can I come in?"

Nothing happened.

"Al?" Matthew tried. "Let me in, or I'll break your door."

That did the trick, kind of.

"Don't touch my door," Alfred's came from behind the door, "or you die."

"Then open the door," Matthew had a giant smirk.

With that, the lock clicked open and the door flung open. Matthew and Maria both noticed Atticus sitting on the bed, staring directly at them, like they had screwed with his plans. That set Matthew barging in, glaring at the evil miscreant. Before he could say anything, Atticus opened his mouth.

"'Stop hurting my brother,'" came a perfect replica of Matthew's voice, shocking the two nations that barged in. "Isn't that what you wanted to say?"

Maria tried to say something, but Atticus stopped by mimicking her perfectly: "'how did you do that?'" he asked, feigning curiosity. "That's for me to know, and for you to never find out."

With that, he vanished once more. Matthew went up to Alfred, who was standing next to the closed door.

"Are you alright?" he asked, not really knowing what to say.

"What do you think?" came the response.

"Let me rephrase that: did you do anything?"

Alfred didn't respond. He just crossed his arms. Matthew told Maria that she should leave.

"Wha-why?" she stammered out.

"Just go," Matthew demanded softly.

With that Maria left to join the others. Inside the room Matthew tended to Alfred. Outside, however, was rowdy. Almost everyone was fighting about something. Maria joined the ever-quiet Kiku on the sidelines.

"What is everyone fighting about now?" she asked her friend.

"I do not know," he said softly, "nor do I wish to know. How was your meeting with Alfred-san?"

"Ama doesn't want to talk, at least to me. Oh, and Matthew kicked me out."

"Why?"

"Hell, if I know."

The conversation dwindled as they watched the fighting nations. Suddenly, a loud whistle could be heard, causing everyone to turn to face the sound.

"Yo," Alfred, now Amelia, said loudly, "I leave for five minutes and you guys are at each other's throats. Stop it! Now, who's hungry?"

She was putting on a façade, obviously, but the other nations knew not to push it. Apparently, she and Matthew made food during the whole fighting ordeal.

"Mattie and I already ate," she said, still talking loudly, "so we're just gonna stay out here till you guys are done."

Matthew glanced at his twin, nervously, but the look quickly went away. Maria approached the duo as the rest of the nations went to the dining room to eat.

"Did she really eat?" she asked Matthew, who nodded.

"She ate half a sandwich," he said softly. "Couldn't get her to eat more."

"I'm right here!" Amelia screamed softly at the two.

After a little while, Maria left to join the others, leaving the twins to sit and discuss some things quietly. After everyone was done eating, Amelia said that she was ready to continue.

Once the door was shut, the scene started. Amelia was on a ship, a new ship, wrapped in a blanket. She could see New York in the distance. Instead of joy at seeing her own land, she was just in shock. She tugged the blanket to cover her more.

The scene ended with Amelia staring forward as her nation came closer and closer. The next scene was Amelia returning to her home, not her room, her home. She was still shaken, and that could be seen by the way she was walking.

"Maria?" she asked loudly, the giant house was extremely quiet.

"Ina!" came an excited voice, "I was so worried when I got the news!"

Maria ran down the stairs and straight into Amelia, causing them both to fall over. Once they were both standing upright, Maria started grilling her adoptive mother.

"What happened?" she asked. "Were you scared? Did-"

She was cutoff by Amelia just sobbing.

"I- I don't want to talk about it," she sobbed out, before running up the stairs to her room, leaving her daughter behind.

The scene ended with Maria looking longingly at the stairs. A new one opened up, in reality it was a few snapshots.

The first, Amelia was marching with several other women. The next was Amelia ignoring hecklers, holding her head high. The final snapshot was Amelia listening to several prominent speakers at the Memorial Continental Hall. She was bright eyed and smiling softly.

The next scene started with Alfred approaching a small boy, about toddler age. He got close to the boy.

"Thomas, do you want to stay with me?" Alfred asked softly, like they had been getting to know each other for a while.

The boy, Thomas, thought for a minute, then nodded. Alfred nodded slowly before smiling and picking Thomas up and spinning around. Ending the scene.

Matthias looked over at Amelia and glared, "you better have been taking good care of him."

Amelia just nodded as the next scene started to play. Alfred was fighting with President Woodrow Wilson.

"The people don't want to join," Alfred yelled to his boss, "I don't want to join!"

"Well," Wilson said sternly, "we're joining."

"It's Europe's issue, not mine!"

"They need our help, plus, what are you going to do when we're attacked."

"We're not going to be attacked!"

"We're joining and that's final!"

The scene ended there.