Fading Hero -Hetalia Fanfic Series- (America x Fem! Canada) [DISCONTINUED]

{One} Her Name Is Madison

She didn't notice it at first. It was not the moment she first met him, no. It was when she really got to know him, got through the walls, and the facade.

That was when she saw the fading image of a hero. What was fading away? His identity? His true self? She still did not know to this day...but that doesn't matter does it? All that matters is that he was such a brave, kind but amazingly broken person. He was a beautiful disaster. Whether or not he truly considered himself a hero, there are the people around him that do. The hero that tried so hard didn't deserve this pain.

And as long as she lived, she swore that she wouldn't let him be forgotten. She, Madison Williams, made a promise that she intended to keep.

For love does not discriminate between putting together such young, inexperienced opposites.

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It's been several, painful weeks since Amelia disappeared.

"Madison, darling, would you like to join me for some sweets?"

I dragged myself out of bed, almost tripping over the covers messily sprawled across the floor in result of my careless footing. I walked towards the door, pausing.

My head titled to the side and I wanted to collapse onto the ground right then and there.

You know those days when you wake up and just feel...Well, it's indescribable. I stared bleakly at my pale face, which looked distorted in my dresser's mirror. No wonder.

Ever since I took my hockey stick and smashed it against the glass, everything in this wretched mirror looked like terrible.

I would've torn my gaze away from the mirror, but the reflection that stared back at me kept me looking. The sullen cheeks, bones sticking out of my snow white skin. The foggy, dirty glasses. The wrinkled clothing I wore, so warm yet not enough to keep out the cold atmosphere swirling in the air.

I was a mess. Everything was a mess.

I trudged out the door of my bedroom.

Francine was doing her best to try to keep me happy. She was like a mother to me, and she loved to cook and bake. She baked French sweets and cooked pancakes, but I would always push them away. She was trying to distract herself just as much as she was trying to distract me. It really wasn't helping.

All I could think about was my sister. My sister, Amelia F. Jones.

We had no idea how to get them her back. How can you get back someone when you don't even know where they are?

That was until he showed up. Just the average person...That was sarcasm.

First off, he came from that mirror. The wretched mirror we've been trying to avoid ever since it took Amelia. Yes, he actually dropped from a reflection in a mirror. If you thought that was weird, imagining a girl being sucked into a mirror. That was what happened to Amelia. We didn't know if she could come back, or if he could get back to wherever he belonged. And second, he actually looked like my sister. It was like the world was just playing with me, replacing Amelia with a male version of her. We didn't know his name, why he looked like her, and why he's even here in the first place.

We didn't know a lot of things, and I hated it.

"Bonjour, Madison."

I loved Francine's smiles. Its warmth, its sweetness. Now all I could was the faint trace of some sort of messed up smile, pain visible in her dimly glowing violet eyes as she attempted to barely hold up the tips of her lips.

"Alice hasn't been taking it so well, dear. I-I was worried you weren't either."

"You aren't either..." I whispered softly.

A pause. I could guess what she was thinking about. Worrying about me and Alice so much that she forgot about herself. She walked through the door and tugged me into a fierce, motherly hug that I wasn't expecting. I buried my face in her chest and close my eyes, sinking into her grasp.

"I'm so sorry I had to leave you," she spoke, finally letting go of me and leading me down the hallway, toward the kitchen. "We couldn't keep the rest of the world guessing for so long."

"It's alright. I get it."

We entered the kitchen and sat down at the dining room. I reached for a croissant, but held myself back at the last second.

"Is Amelia ever coming back?"

A pause. She takes a deep breath and I open my eyes to see her holding back the tears in her glistening eyes.

"...I-It's not certain..."

"I know." I lowered my head, closing my eyes. "It was stupid of me to have hope."

"Oh, mon petit...Let's just hope for the best," She kissed my forehead. "So how is...she doing?"

Alice. Alice Kirkland.

As Francine was a motherly figure to me, Alice was like a mother to Amelia. Out of the three of us, she was probably suffering the most.

I sighed, running my fingers through my scalp, anxiety pulsing through my nerves. "She hasn't come out of the room for the past few days. She's been muttering stuff, and flipping pages of what I assume are her spell books. I would try to give her actual meals, but she refuses to open the door. I could only give her small things through the crack in the bottom of the door."

"I see...You can go home, mon cher. I will stay and do my best to take care of her."

I quickly shook my head. She was already sacrificing so much for us. I recalled the stress I felt when I was trying to take care of Alice, I couldn't imagine Francine having to take care of me and Alice. "Are you sure? I can-"

"Non, I'll be alright. Take care of the house while I'm away."

I stayed silent. From the tone of her voice, I could tell she wasn't about to change her mind. Her glittering violet eyes also told me that she figured something out...I had no idea what it was.

"Okay...But what about...um..." My sentence broke off, caught by the nervousness I felt in my throat. "H-Him?"

I was half curious, and half scared. Him, the guy who dropped from a mirror, like a replacement for Amelia. I was thinking about how Alice would react to him.

I just hoped they wouldn't start World War 3.

"Has he woken up yet?"

"I don't think so. He's been mumbling things as well, but I didn't catch a lot of it. Sometimes he would say their names, too."

Francine nodded, giving me a comforting pat on the shoulder. "Go home, Maddie."

"I will. Bonne chance and prends soin, Francine." I stood out, grabbing my stuff before walking out the door.

Good luck, huh? Looks like I'll be needing some of that luck, too.