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One Meaning ::EDITED::

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They all stared at Alfred, wondering why he was crying so loud.

They just didn't understand; nobody ever did.

But here, in his arms, was the one person who knew him well enough to know how much pain was in his heart. He inhaled the intoxicating scent of sampaguita in her thick, dark hair, and his body relaxed.

Maria patted his back, singing a sweet lullaby. The sound was mesmerizing, so much so that it made Alfred feel like sleeping right then and there in the warmth of the girl so precious to him....

Back then, he had to leave Maria and grant her the independence she had longed for even though she was still suffering physically, emotionally, and financially; negative effects of Kiku's short but otherwise terrible reign over her. Maria had not had a very enjoyable life; in the days of Antonio, she had been forced to work nonstop, to the point that she would collapse and not wake up for several days. She was a hardworking girl, but terribly fragile. This was where Alfred had rescued her, cold and ill, from the hands of Antonio. He took care of her and only let her do simple housework; he didn't want to strain her too much.

What Alfred didn't know was how much he meant to her. She loved him so deeply. It was because of this man that Maria was free. She had always been weak and defenseless, always at the mercy of stronger, more powerful Nations. Alfred was her ray of light in a world so bleak... A world painted black. During all the time she had spent, trapped and traumatized, in the middle of warfare, she had been reduced to becoming mentally dispirited. She had spent almost all her life listening to the sounds of war... The sounds of small children crying for their mothers, the sounds of poor farmers armed with nothing but machetes being shot down by foreign soldiers mercilessly. And it was Alfred that had freed her from the shackles binding her to eternal hopelessness, for which she was ever grateful.

Alfred had grown attached to the poor country, and had always treasured every minute they had spent together; he could still remember the days when Maria would make leche flan for him whenever he would come home, complaining and exhausted. It was sweet and creamy, and, for Alfred, it was all the more delicious because she had poured her heart and soul into making it for him. Oh, how he'd love to have a taste of that again....

Alfred awoke and sat bolt upright. Looking wildly around him, he saw the other Nations clustered around him nervously. Rubbing his eyes and looking past all the others, he could see Maria behind them, her head bowed. She was the only person he cared about right now. Groggily, he stood up and nearly collapsed again. He made his way towards her on his unsteady feet, with every eye upon his slow progress.

Maria had realized that Alfred was looking for her, so she looked up and smiled. It looked strained. Instead of making Alfred walk the rest of the way, she moved forward and opened her arms wide enough for him to step into. He leaned against her again, closing his eyes.

"Maria…" he mumbled inaudibly.

"There, there, Kuya Alfred… It's going to be alright…." she said soothingly. But her face showed otherwise; she looked worried.

Antonio seemed to notice.

"Hmm? Is there something the matter, Maria…?"

"O-Oh no, nothing…!" Maria said in reply, seemingly coming out of a reverie. Alfred was still pretending to be asleep, but he was actually listening.

"It sure doesn't sound like nothing," Antonio said doubtfully. Maria replied by gazing out of the window. Alfred opened his eyelids by a fraction and dared to look out of the window, as well. He nearly gasped.

"Don't you know that it's Christmas today…?" she said quietly.

All of them were startled. They, too, looked out the window, and, to their amazement, they saw snow, pure and white.

Maria smiled. "You know, it's my first time to experience snow; where I live, we don't have this during the winter months. It is… truly wonderful to behold. I had only ever read about snow in the books I had found in Kuya Alfred's old shed, and how I longed to see it at least once in my lifetime…."

They all looked away again, ashamed. Snow was something they had always taken for granted, especially for Ivan; it was snowing practically all the time. For this girl – this sweet, sweet girl – snow was something special. Ivan now wondered why he resented General Winter so much, when he had always brought him the one thing this girl had always wanted.

There was an awkward silence, in which Alfred pretended to snore loudly. Maria rubbed his back.

Someone had finally plucked up the courage to speak , however, for he was cutting his way through the crowd. Soon, little Tino emerged, smiling shyly up at Maria.

"Miss Maria…? May I ask how you celebrate your Christmas (At this, Feliciano was at the point of reciting how he celebrates his Christmas – which, as he had already said once before, involved illuminating mountains and baking turkeys – before Ludwig covered his mouth with his hand)?"

Alfred smiled.  He still remembered that one time when the Axis had interviewed them all about how they all celebrated Christmas….

The Finnish spent time in saunas before Christmas, and the leftover flames were used to melt tin. The melted tin is then used for fortune telling come New Year's.  

For the Russians, Christmas fell on January seventh instead of December twenty-fifth. And their version of Santa Claus was Ded Moroz, a man who performed miracles and who was also known as Grandfather Frost, back then when they couldn't celebrate Christmas. Ivan had told them all that they always made dolls of him, and that those dolls were rumored to come alive on the stroke of midnight on the twenty-fifth of December; leave it to Ivan to make even a Christmas tale scary.

And as for the French, some preferred to make their Christmas "gorgeous" and "romantic," as Francis had so delicately put it, and, according to him, they treated Santa Claus to wine (does that mean he delivers presents to children drunk, then…?).

So many different ways of celebrating one thing.

Although, he never really had the chance to celebrate Christmas with Maria, so he was quite interested to find out, as well.

"Oh! All of the members of the family gather in one place and celebrate together!" she said happily, her face lighting up immediately. You could almost feel the happiness radiating from her.

"Really? That's wonderful!" Tino said.

"All of the members of the family?" said Alfred in amazement, forgetting to feign sleep. They all laughed.

Maria was surprised to see that he had been awake all this time. But she gave a soft, tinkling giggle; it was a sweet sound. Almost like chimes swaying gently in the breeze. "Yes, all of them. Even the sister-in-laws, brother-in-laws, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, grandparents… Everyone!" she said.

"Whoa…." they all sighed. "That's one huge family...."

"And then before we eat, we all gather around the dining table, hold each other's hands, and pray. We all have a lot of fun eating together!" she explained. Her mind seemed to be somewhere far away. "Then we exchange presents with each other."

She looked up with a melancholic look in her face.

"Yes… I really enjoy Christmas; it's one of the days I look forward to the most. You see, for me, Christmas isn't all about presents, really. It's about the birth of our God," she said, closing her eyes.

Antonio puffed out his chest proudly. "Just what I'd taught her!"

Maria opened her eyes and smiled again; this girl never seemed to run out of things to smile about.

Not even then.

When she was young, Alfred would always see her smiling, even at the littlest things. When he had accidentally overcooked the pancakes they were to have for breakfast, she smiled brightly and said, "It's okay! As long as kuya cooked it with all his heart, I'd be glad to eat it!" When she saw that the house was in shambles after Alfred had started looking for one of his socks, she smiled again and said, "I'll clean up and look for your sock for you, so you just go and have a bit of a rest, I know how tired you are." Such a good girl.

"Christmas is…" Maria began.

"Christmas is about family. No matter how hard life is right now, no matter how poor my country is, celebrating Christmas together is the one thing we will never, ever miss out on. We will always find a way to celebrate it, no matter what." she continued, tears leaking out of her eyes; tears of pure joy. "And now... Now all of you are my family, and I wouldn't miss spending Christmas with you all for anything else." she finished with a watery smile.

To his very great surprise, Alfred saw that all the Nations were crying, too.

Yao hadn't spent Christmas with Taiwan, Hong Kong, Yong Soo, and Kiku since they had grown up. Yao was their big brother, and when they were small, they all had Christmas dinner together; Yong Soo would always take too much for himself, and he and Taiwan would often fight over who would get to eat the last dumpling. Kiku and Hong Kong never complained, not once.

Yao smiled and hugged the other Asian Nations. They all hugged him back.

The Asians were united.

The Baltics weren't all that close to each other; Raivis had always wanted himself some siblings. The problem was that they never even thought to look at each other as brothers. Raivis wailed and tears were streaming out of his eyes. Eduard and Toris held him as he stood there, shaking, like doting parents on their small son.

The Baltics were united.

The Nordics, too, looked a bit awkward; Berwald, who had always looked rather intimidating to everyone, finally managed a wholehearted smile. Tino was amazed. Hanatamago jumped from his arms and onto Berwald's shoulder, licking his ear happily. Denmark ruffled Berwald's hair, grinning. Norway had always seen Iceland as a younger brother, and Iceland has always considered Norway to be the home where his heart truly is.

The Nordics were united.

Ivan had finally decided that now was the time for drastic action: dramatically, it seemed, he took of his scarf and ran his slim, gloved fingers through his beige-blonde hair with a dazzling smile on his face; Ivan Braginski's very first moment in the spotlight. And looking that hot didn't seem to hurt much either (well, maybe Gilbert's pride, but that was a different story).
Everyone in the room gasped, dumbfounded; it wasn't everyday that you got to see Ivan Braginski's neck exposed.
To Ukraine and Natalia, however, this was of no surprise, seeing as they had already laid eyes on their brother without that scarf on.
But that scarf was Ivan's special keepsake, a gift from his elder sister, Ukraine, when he was very young. He had always treasured it very much.
Closing his eyes, he said quietly, "I bet you're all wondering why I've changed so much."
And he was right.
"You see... Long ago, the three of us were homeless. Just Sestra Natalia, Sestra Ukraine, and I, all alone. We didn't have the Soviet Union yet; I hadn't even known Raivis (the small, nervous boy gave a start upon hearing his name), Eduard, and Toris at the time. And Sestra Ukraine had given me this scarf when we were standing in the freezing cold. This scarf means so much to me; I'm sure you can all understand why I never take it off. This scarf... has been with me ever since.... And it was during the Bloody Sunday, an important day in my country's bloody history, that I had cracked mentally, because everyone in my country hated me despite the fact that I had made our Nation stronger and more prestigious than all the others single-handedly; that was the day I had become the Ivan you have all come to know. And hopefully, maybe even accept.
"But... recently I've been thinking... Sestra Ukraine's scarf is what had kept me human all this time. If it weren't for this, I would have committed suicide on that day. And so... I'm grateful to her." he finished, smiling; tears were cascading down his cheeks.
The picture of a weeping angel.
Ukraine stood on the tips of her toes and hugged his younger brother.
"Ivan... Ivan...." she sobbed into his chest.
Ivan wrapped one arm around her, and invited Natalia to into the other.
Looking slightly unsure of herself, Natalia merely looked into Ivan's eyes. But in the end, she gave in. She was crying, too; she ran into his embrace, and Natalia spoke quietly, "I'm... I'm so sorry... For everything."
Looking up from his sisters, Ivan smiled at the Baltics.
"I'm sorry."
The Baltics were caught off guard for a moment there; Ivan was actually apologizing? To them?
Ah, well; anything can happen, after all.
They smiled back at him.

The Soviet was united once more.

Ludwig was blushing slightly; Feliciano had always asked him if he had hated him, and Ludwig always said no, but even so, Feliciano would keep on asking again and again. Now was the chance to tell him that he would never, ever hate him. He bent down and hugged Feliciano briefly, before letting go and saying, "Er… There, I don't hate you, alright?"
Feliciano smiled enthusiastically, as he always did. "Did you hear that, Kiku? Ludwig doesn't hate me!"
"Neither do I, Feliciano-san." Kiku replied; for once, his face was full of emotion.

The Axis were united.

Even the Allies had set aside their differences; Yao, who had once been terrified of Ivan, was now talking to him joyfully about the panda he was currently raising. Ivan was listening, apparently full of lively interest. Francis, too, had toned down a little; he was actually apologizing to Arthur for all the times he had quarreled with him.

The Allies were united.

But in Alfred's mind, he heard a strangely familiar voice echoing in his memory, drowning out all else. He focused on it, shutting away the outside world entirely.

Opening his eyes, Alfred found himself somewhere else; he wasn't in the room with the World anymore. There was bright sunlight everywhere. And he had gotten smaller, too; the house he was in just seemed too big for him. Seriously, though, he could have sworn he was a hundred and seventy-seven centimeters tall -- minus Nantucket -- until a little while ago. He looked at his hands; they were tiny! What had happened?

With curiosity welling up inside him, he looked around him in wonder.

He was in somebody's sitting room, and there were two crossed flags mounted on the cream-colored wall; one was his own, the flag of the United States of America in red, white, and blue. But the other was blurred. He couldn't tell whose flag it was at all. Setting that aside, he also saw that there was a wooden rocking chair; it was still moving gently, as if someone had just been in it. There was a tea table next to it; on top of it was a picture frame, but he couldn't quite see what was displayed in it for the sunlight made the glass appear blindingly white... Although, it could be blamed on the radically simple -- and rather obvious -- fact that he had shrunk by a few feet.

As soon as he laid eyes on the rocking chair, Alfred remembered something rather odd: he was sitting sleepily on someone's lap, rocking back and forth; he must have been on the rocking chair. The person he was sitting on was humming peacefully. It was around midday. Then that someone rubbed his back rhythmically, and before he knew it, he was sleeping soundly.

Shaking his head vigorously, Alfred's strange vision disappeared.

The kitchen looked as if it was hardly used, but on the stove was a blackened frying pan; the person who lived here obviously had no idea what to do in a kitchen. On the dining table was a charred scone and a cup of freshly-brewed tea; was the person who lived here just about to have a meal? Gingerly, he climbed up on a chair with difficulty. Once he was up, he picked up the scone and took a bite; it tasted… good.

Another vision flooded his memory; this time, he was sitting in this very chair, and he was enjoying the scones prepared for him. They were delicious to him! They were made with so much love. He smiled at the person sipping tea in front of him, the person who had cooked his delicious food. But... his face was blurred, too, like the flag. Why couldn't he remember who it was…?

Outside, there was a magnificent garden. Flowers bloomed all around, and overhead was a canopy of leaves, casting dappled green shadows onto the ground.

Alfred was struck with another vision; he was running around the lawn, laughing. Someone was playing tag with him. Then he tripped and fell and grazed himself on a rock on the ground. He cried, and someone picked him up, rocking him from side to side to make him stop crying. He eventually did, and he managed to laugh again.

"Arthur!" Alfred said, his voice full of pure laughter and happiness.

... Then he was with the World again, and hot tears were welling up in his eyes; but he wasn't feeling lonely, either.

He had just realized where he had just been; he had entered his own memory.

That was Arthur's house he had been in. That was Arthur's flag. The picture that the frame had held was that of him and Arthur. That was Arthur sitting opposite him, smiling as he had never done since.

It seemed that Arthur had just remembered the same thing.

Arthur extended his right hand. Alfred stared at it.

"Friends, Alfred…?" he said, grinning embarrassedly.

Alfred grinned back. "Definitely."

He grasped it, brother to brother.

America and England were united.

The World was united.

The World was family.

They all held a Christmas party and celebrated together. Francis became very drunk over the peach vodka, Zinfandel, and champagne he had been dared to drink simultaneously.
Arthur drank a bit too much, himself; he had become extremely tipsy, mumbling things like, "Ahaha... You're such a pretty unicorn~" and "Get your pixie dust out of my face, you little rascal~! It tickles~"
But then again... he was always like that.
Typical Arthur Kirkland.
And the one thing they couldn't forget was when he accidentally fell against Ukraine's chest, making her scream, "PERVERT! PERVERT!!!" as she whacked him around the head with the faucet pipe that was once in the hands of her tall brother, and which, to everyone's enormous relief, he had mercifully decided to abandon for good.
Hanatamago was running around the Nations' ankles playfully, being chased by Feliciano.
Yong Soo was thoroughly enjoying himself by disturbing the peace, as usual. He kept interrupting conversations, yelling loudly, "KOREA'S ALREADY INVENTED THAT~!"
Ludwig and Gilbert were having a beer-drinking contest, and the others were cheering them on exhuberantly.
"Come on, Ore-sama!"
"You can do better than that, Ludwig!"
Most of the men had clustered themselves around Maria, asking her if she was single and free and offering her different sorts of flowers. She was quite flustered; she had tried running away at one point, but they just kept dragging her back. "You guys had better be grateful that she doesn't have that broom of hers," Antonio remarked with a short, booming laugh.
Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, the Spaniard who never seemed to lose his good mood and sense of humor.
HE, on the other hand, was busying himself with following Lovino around, annoying him by calling him "Lovi" over and over in that annoying tone Francis always used when harassing some poor, unfortunate soul.
They had exchanged gifts, too; Arthur received a cookbook from Francis, at which Arthur glared scathingly. This just made Francis laugh. Maria got plenty of flowers and chocolates from the male Nations, and even Natalia had given her something; it seemed as though Natalia had found someone new to obsess over at last. Ivan was given the remaining bottles of peach vodka, which he was happily swigging in the corner with Ludwig and Gilbert, who were, apparently, still drinking to their heart's content. The Asian Nations had given their older brother a Hello Kitty stuffed toy, and Yao was now bragging about how soft and cute and delightfully huggable it was to anyone who cared enough about too girly a cartoon character to listen. Feliciano was offered the leftover pasta, and he squealed girlishly; they were pretty much used to his girly screams already.
But in Alfred's opinion, he had still received the best presents of all: a repaired relationship with Arthur, a smile from his beloved Maria, and all the love in the World.

And all the love in the World was all he cared about.

Especially on Christmas Day.

It was the best Christmas Alfred had ever had. It was a Christmas he would never forget.

At the end of the party, when it was so dark outside that you could hardly see anything at all, they all decided to have a toast in the name of Christmas.

They all raised their glasses and cheered, "MERRY CHRISTMAS!"

They had all said it in their own individual languages: for Francis and Vash, it was "Joyeux Noel!"
For Ludwig, it was "Frohe Weihnachten!"  
For Feliciano and Lovino, it was "Buono Feste Natalizie!"
For Kiku, it was "Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu omedeto."
For Antonio, it was "Feliz Navidad!"
For Maria, it was "Maligayang Pasko!"
For Berwald and Norway, it was "God Jul!"
For Yao, it was " Gun Tso Sun Tan'Gung Haw Sun!"
For Tino, it was "Hyvaa joulua!"
For Heracles, it was "Kala Christouyenna!"
For Elizabeta, it was " Kellemes Karacsonyi unnepeket!"
For Iceland, it was "Gledileg Jol!"
For Yong Soo, it was "Sung Tan Chuk Ha!"
For Raivis, it was " Prieci'gus Ziemsve'tkus un Laimi'gu Jauno Gadu!"
For Toris, it was "Linksmu Kaledu!"
For Eduard, it was "Ruumsaid juulup|hi!"
For Feliks, it was " Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia or Boze Narodzenie!"
For Ivan, it was " Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva is Novim Godom!"
For Ukraine, it was " Srozhdestvom Kristovym!"

But no matter how many languages the World used, it didn't matter to Alfred, because Maria had helped them see that it all just held one meaning.









































"Family."
This is the fifth and final volume of my first Axis Powers Hetalia fanfic.

VOLUME 1 :: [link]
VOLUME 2 :: [link]
VOLUME 3 :: [link]
VOLUME 4 :: [link]

RUSSIA'S BLOODY SUNDAY, 1905 (c) Himaruya Hidekaz :: [link]

--------------------------------------------------------------


And THIS, my friends, is the story behind my drawing of Russia saying, "I'm still... human."
Now, we all still remember that, don't we? ^^

So far, the last two volumes seem to be the longest. xDD

I'd had to edit this several times until I was satisifed. There are a lot of parts that I really wanted to include, as well, but unfortunately, they're not present here.

I also had to look for "Merry Christmas" in every language I could; it was... hard, let me tell you. ^^'
I sure hope I got them right, though....

I was inspired to write this because I wasn't really looking forward to Christmas this year, and on the top of that, the presents I received weren't all that (except for the money~ Oh ho ho ho~ = w = ). But when I stopped to think about how much my family had to work in order to buy their gifts to me, the resent in my heart was melted away.
Family.
What Christmas is all about, right? ^^


P.S. Thank you for supporting me and reading my fanfic through the whole way, and nobody hopes more than I that you had at least learned something from all this. Hopefully, I shall be writing another one soon, for writing the previous one has awe-inspired me to do better in future. Once again, thank you very, very much. For everything.

P.S.S. And by the way, the wild strand on top of Alfred's head is the representation of Nantucket.
© 2009 - 2024 OhMhaiGosh
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ladyblackbird13's avatar
GYAAAA! MY FEEELZ!!!