Homeless (a Hetalia Fanfic, Book Three)

Chapter 49~!

Dead ends. New possibilities. It seemed that every time Vale found something to help narrow the search, another path would open itself up. Still, with everyone pitching in their efforts to find a cure, progress was being made to overcome those many, many potential explanations for what exactly was using Alice's body as its host. 

Once in a while, Vale would bring Alice to the inner library and ask the Magic Trio for anything they might have found pertaining to this or that, and each time she visited them, they would help her narrow down the range of problematic origins of the parasite. 

"It can't be anything with this type of magic."

"It probably vasn't a spell cast by someone."

"Should ve try the sections about demonic creatures?" 

At that question she nodded and glanced back at Alice, who wasn't listening to the four of them talk in hushed voices. Her attention was elsewhere as she wandered over to a large tome sitting open on a low-rising coffee table situated next to a couple of leather armchairs. This was a library, after all. The book held nothing of interest for her, and she moved on.

"Yes, check there," Vale said in response to Romania's question. "Anything and everything."

The three of them accepted their task and scurried off to perform it. They knew that time was of the essence, especially after that horrible message they'd received from the parasite. 

'I would almost say that it is getting... bolder' England thought to himself as he eased a dusty text down from a tall shelf and started to scan its first two pages. 'Since it told us something at all. That was a risky thing to do, considering how this creature has been trying to hide itself away for quite some time.'

Vale beckoned for Alice to follow her out of the library, and they returned to the "research lab" as Alex had dubbed it. Alice had to go wherever Vale went; it was an unspoken rule. The parasite wouldn't rear its ugly head and try to hurt anyone when the all-powerful Scribe was around to stop it in its tracks. Mary was seated in a chair and flipping through a thick book of her own, although this one was about psychological diseases and other related topics. Alfred and Francis were both taking rests in the other room, where the cots were, and Matthew had waited for Vale and Alice to get back.

Alex, unfortunately, had gone back to his own dimension. 

"Sorry, I really wish I could stay longer," he had said sincerely. "But Maddie and the kids are waiting for me back home, and I've got stuff to take care of. Country stuff, you know how it goes."

"All too well," Alice responded. "It's okay, Alex, I get it. You don't have to feel bad because you can't stay."

"I just wanna help you get better," he wished as he folded his female counterpart into a hug that she immediately returned. "You work hard on that, got it? And take care of yourself, no matter what. I don't wanna have to come running back here because I heard something went wrong."

"I'll do my best," she promised into the front of his shirt. "And hey, I'll see you later, right?"

"Right," Alex answered with a smile. With one last squeeze he released her and left, waving goodbye to everyone else and calling out one last encouragement to "Kick this parasite's ass!" 

Mary hadn't appreciated the swear one bit, but the look she sent Alex just made him laugh before he shut the door behind himself.

Now that he was gone, Alice and Matthew were leaning boredly against the table from their perches on the stools, which actually weren't all that comfortable. "Uhm..." Alice began to say, and Matthew turned to look at her with a kindly prompting expression on his face. "So..."