"I don't know what to do anymore."

"What are you on about now?," Arthur looked to his right where, sprawled across a sofa, lay Alfred. One leg on the floor, one stretching over the arm, ipod earpieces in one ear, even though nothing was playing. His face was in the pillows and a greasy hand next to a bucket KFC bones.

"I don't know what to do anymore, Arthur.," then America sat up, he ran his (clean) hand through his golden hair, just like he always did when he was distressed about something. "see there's something…. I had this idea. And….. And now its all I think about.," he chucked, "its like Leonardo DiCaprio go in my head and put thoughts in there, like in that one movie."

Arthur blinked at him," and?'

"what do you mea 'and'? I'm being torn up over here!," hurt crossed Alfred's face.

"no, no!," Arthur shook his hands in front of his face," that's not what I mean at all," he picked up the television remote and shut off the CNN news report he had been watching. "What is it that is bothering you?"

"This idea I had. I told you that."

"Don't be a smart ass. What's the idea?" Arthur smirked playfully," sometimes Alfred….just sometimes…"

"I…."Alfred looked extremely uncomfortable, more awkward than Arthur had ever seen him before. "I want to come out."

Arthur's eyes opened wide in shock. "You want to… you mean like…," he put the tips of his fingers together, raising one bushy eyebrow.

"No! Eww! Not like that!," Alfred looked shocked," You know how I roll; just like the rest of… us." Alfred put a lot of stress on the 'us'. Then he knitted his fingers together and became very quiet. He became very interested in his cowboy boots on the floor, or maybe it was the floor he was looking at. He mumbled something.

"Pardon?" England leaned forward. "Listen Alfred you can trust me…"

"If I do will you do it with me."

Arthur blushed. "I don't know what the bloody hell you're taking about.," Arthurs eyebrows creased together. A very stern look flashed across his face. "But if you told me what… I would certainly think about what ever it is you're talking about."

Alfred looked up at Arthur. His face stressed and tired looking, worry was radiating off him in waves. "Ok. Will you hear me out then? No interruptions?"

"I will try." Arthur moved to the sofa and sat next to him, he grasped Alfred's hands in one of his own.

"Ok, here goes." America gulped," you know about Washington and Lincoln, an' how they never told lies?"

"Yes."

"Well, I… I dot like lie'n either. An' well, to me, my life, our lives, everyone like us, our lives… our lives are…,"he looked at Arthur, his blue eyes lacking their usual shine, his usual golden blonde hair was dull and flat. "…lies. Arthur, there're lies."

"Alfred..?" Arthur grasped his hand tighter. He knew how unstable Alfred was, how easily he got lost in his thoughts and blew things out of proportion. If Alfreds thought had turned dark… Arthur didn't want to think of what could happen.

"Well" Alfred continued" my people, they disserve to know. Keeping secrets from them, it hurts me." he looked around the room. He removed his hands from Arthurs grasp; he leaned back and stared to the ceiling. "I want to tell them what's going on, who…what we are."

"What stared all this Alfred? You know we can't do that!" Arthur was shocked. "Are you off your rocker!"

"Arthur…" Alfred lifted his leather jacket from the floor, he reached into the inside pocket. He pulled out a folded news paper. "It started out with tabloids and conspiracy enthusiasts. Then…" he began to unfold the paper," I got this in the mail two days ago. This is why I called you over here early." he silently handed the paper to Arthur. He looked down at his feet again, his head between his knees, hands on the back of his neck. Arthur took the newspaper and took a few glances back and forth, between the paper and Alfred. Arthur carefully unfolded the last flap, terrified of what he might see. And there on the front page in big bold font, complete with photos: WHO IS HE?" The pictures were all of Alfred, always in the background, always smiling, during presidential inaugurations and other important occasions. A long article accompanied it but Arthur couldn't bring himself to read it. He dropped the paper and covered his mouth with his hand. He bit his lip. Arthur looked at Alfred, who hadn't moved. It was silent. The it was broken with a sob.

"Alfred." More sobbing. Alfred was shaking. "Alfred." Arthur put his hand on Alfreds back. Still more sobbing; still more shaking. "Damn it America, listen to me!"

Alfred looked up, eyes red and puffy, snot running down his nose, teeth clenched together. "Don't call me that Arthur…" Alfred looked down again. And with a final sob he broke down," I fucked up big time didn't I!" he clasped onto Arthur.

Shocked Arthur didn't move, he hadn't seen Alfred cry like this, act like this towards him since, well, since forever. "It's going to be ok. They'll forget."

"No! They want!" Alfred sat up suddenly "you don't understand!"

"Alfred its just one paper, what is this? Some obscure paper, I'm sure." he smiled and looked at the publisher title" see its just the LA time…"Arthur smile fell "well then…shit."

Alfred stood" and it's not the only one either! Amanda sent me that one." he picked up a pile from the table besides the sofa and through them one by one on to arthurs lap for him to see. "USA Today, New York Times, Washington Post…" he named off a few. "And they keep coming in!"

"Alfred calm down!" Arthur stood up. "Who's sending these to you?"

Alfreds face went dark for a moment "that's not important!" he looked down at the papers. "That's what's important!" he grabbed his hair "they know! They know something's up! I can feel it! And they will not stop until they know! Their protesting Arthur! Out side of the White House!"

Arthurs face fell. This was serious. "Alfred why don't you calm down, breathe and relax. Don't worry about this right now." Arthur put his hand on his shoulder. "Bring it up at the meeting in New York on Friday. Then we can all talk about this together."

Alfred shrugged his hand away. "You don't get it. I'm going out. "He pulled on his leather jacket and headed towards then door. He pulled his keys out of a jar from besides the door. "Ill be back later… just order pizza or something if you get hungry or something…" Alfred muttered "there's some money on top of the fridge if you need any." and with that he was gone. Seconds later the sound of his Ducati roared away.

Arthur stood awkwardly in the middle of the living room. He fell on to the sofa. His gaze drifter over to the papers. He shoved his reading glasses on and began to read.

It was almost 10 and Alfred had not returned. Arthur was for the most part, panicking. He had never liked those noisy machines Alfred had become so enthralled with after World War 2. What if he had wrecked? What if he was dying in a gutter! All alone! Covered in his own blood calling out for Arthur to save him!

Quickly Arthur snapped out of it. He was sounding like Alfred. He was fine. And it would take a lot more than a wreck to fatally hurt him. Arthur chuckled to himself. To settle himself he sat back on the couch with a cup of tea. (He had brought his own tea bags), he flipped on the news again to see own Europe was doing with him gone. Unfortunately most of the report was about poor Greece. Arthur snorted" poor devil probably looks like death with how long he's been sick." but England kept listening. For the first time he actually listened to how the reporters spoke about them so nonchalantly like they didn't have feelings, as if they didn't matter. Poor Heracles probably couldn't feed himself and his cats and here were these people just chatting about how dumb the country had been! How would they fee if they knew they were talking about an actual person!

Was this what Alfred was getting at? Ws this kind of what he felt about this. Was this why he wanted them to show them selves?

And Arthur found himself, for the first time in along time, agreeing with Alfred. It needed to be done. Things gad gotten way to far out of hand. Things had become way too impersonal. Yes the highest authorities knew of their existence, but it had long ago been decided to be kept secret, but times had changed. Back then they were scared people would revolt, fearing a witch or a demon was influencing their king. But now… things had changed… Arthur stood up, shutting off the television. He was about to leave to look for Alfred when he shuffled through the door, soaking wet and puffy eyed. When had it started raining?

"Alfred! Where in the seven hells have you been! Do you have any idea how worried I've been?" Alfred looked up at Arthur, hi mouth a thin line, eyebrows knitted together. Only then did Arthur see the blood on his knuckles, his check was bruised, he was holding his right side gingerly. "Oh lad! What have you been up to? Arthur quickly hurried over to Alfred herding him to the sofa. "Here take off those wet things." Arthur began working on his shoes as Alfred pulled off his jacket and shirt. Arthur stood holding the wet things," here give me your trousers too lad, ill put them in the wash. An; then ill make you some hot chocolate. How's that sound?'

Alfred nodded blandly. He removed his jeans leaving himself in damp dark blur boxers; he flopped down again staring at the ground. Arthur grabbed a blanket from the back of the sofa and put it over Alfred's shoulders. Alfred didn't seem to notice. Arthur threw the wet things in the garage and put the kettle on to boil. While he waited he gingerly sat in the arm chair next to Alfred's sofa. "Lad, while you were out. I… I got to thinking about what you proposed earlier."

Alfred seemed to perk up. "And?"

Arthur chuckled. "And, I think your right."

Alfreds face broke into a grin," you serious dude! I can't believe it! I knew you'd see it my way!"

"Alfred you need to understand though. Everyone is going to need to agree, and I mean everyone. It's going to be difficult. But I think if people remember that their actions can hurt people, and if there're given a face to they 'people', it will do some real good."

"Like world peace?"

Arthur chuckled," yes, just like world peace in a ways."

"Hell yeah! I can't wait to see Swiss's face when I win that damn peace prize!"

Arthur laughed again," now, what were you doing? You're all bashed up."

"Oh, I was just you know, boxing," Alfred said sheepishly.

"At the gym?" Arthur raised and eyebrow.

"Not exactly."

"Alfred."

"Ok! Fine! In the alley behind the Mad Dog! Its a few blocks down. Listen Arthur! I'm ok its just, you know, a hobbies. A way to blow off steam." Alfred smiled brightly. "Like how you knit and drink tea and do that thing you do with the books."

"I don't knit, I embroider, I drink tea because I like it, and that thing I do is called reading, and none of those are anything like fighting random thugs in an alley!"

"Hey they aren't thugs! There my friends!"

"Friends!" the kettle started whistling. It was ignored.

"Yeah were in a club!" Alfred smiled even wider. "You know, like in that one movie with Brad Pitt, Fight Club."

Arthur stood up glaring. "This is not over." and he went into the kitchen to get the chocolate ready.