Hetalia one-shots

Where everything is good (America and England): Vietnam War/60s AU

** Vietnam War (warnings: extreme war violence, racial slurs) Au. Based off the song. Someday when I have more time and effort I'll make this into a full length story 🙂.  **

I remember when your head
Caught flame.
It kissed your scalp, and
Caressed your brain.

Alfred Kirkland-Bonnefoy struggled to hold the gun. No, I mean he could hold the gun. He could fire it too, and he had before. But this wasn't how he thought the war would be at all. He knew he'd have to kill people, duh. But wizened farmers, half-naked women holding babies to their breasts-- His blood roared in his ears as he stood, frozen, watching blood erupt from the face of a little boy--

"Private!" His commanding officer screamed in his ear. He could barely hear him. He could barely think. In fact, he wasn't thinking anymore. He couldn't. "Fucking shoot those gooks, Private! That's an order!"

And Alfred still didn't think as he loaded a round of machine gun fire into another person. It wasn't enough, now that he was actually killing people, to fix it with a simple "they're the enemy". Hell, he had already tried that.

Well you laughed:
Baby it's okay...
It's buzzcut season anyway.

"How do I look?" Alfred called, walking into his house with a grin. His sisters were out, his brother out with his uh, special friend. But his father Arthur looked up, before his face settled into a frown.

"Sharp." He stared at his younger son's US army uniform, his short hair. Flashbacks from the Second War came rushing back to him, nauseatingly fast. He didn't want to see his son die. He didn't want to see him sucked under.

"Pfft, I know, Dad. You don't have to tell me that." He grinned and sat down next to him, reaching for the paper he had previously been reading. "Just think -- soon, I'll be a hero! And I promise I'll make you and Pops proud."

You've already made me proud, Arthur wanted desperately to say. Don't do this. You'll never come back -- even if by some goddamn miracle you do survive. "Just...promise me you'll be careful."

Alfred looked at him curiously. "Of course I will. You don't have to worry about me."

And Arthur just nodded like he believed him.