The Referendum

Part 2

Though there is only a desk between us I don't think we could ever be farther apart than at this moment. We haven't even signed the documents yet and already I can feel myself crumbling. But it is simply the price that must be paid and I have paired for many before him.

America

Canada

Hong Kong

Australia

New Zealand

Ireland

Japan

Even France.

I have paid the price for most of the countries at one time or another.

I only kept Scotland because I wasn't ready yet.

I was greedy and wanted to see my colonies, friends, and siblings (true or claimed) grow up first. Make sure they would be OK.

I knew before I even signed the documents binding me too my oldest brother I wouldn't live long past dissolving them.

So I didn't. I kept him with me and when it came I took what wasn't truly mine.

I took the security of being the United Kingdom. For surely...

... We would always stand united.

But as I told no one why I needed it, fearing needlessly that they would use it against me, they didn't know it was not them I believed couldn't survive alone...

...But that I knew I couldn't.

My hand shakes slightly as I sign my name for the final time but I don't think Alba notices. As I hand the weapon for my demise to him he yanks me around the table and into a joyful loving embrace that I haven't experienced from anyone since I became a Roman Province. People might think I'm joking or at least over exaggerating but I'm not. The only people the Roman Empire showed affection towards were his grandchildren. Due to many factors I don't care to list right now the only other province that would be around me was France and he was skittish the entire time, my Mother was dead so she couldn't hold me, the invasions were a time of attack and concur NOT form a union and love each other, France only very recently started finding me even remotely attractive enough to tease, and all of my unions with other countries outside of my brothers have been strictly business. Not that I blame any of them for not wanting to taint themselves by sleeping with a good-for-nothing country like me. America and my other colonies never had the 'undying love for you' feel; it always had a 'I don't want you to go but remember that I'm planning on breaking away from you' feel to it. And my brothers changed after my time as a province...

...Though it was probably the opposite.

I changed too much for them to love what I had become...

...A weak, dying, pathetic province that had forgotten how to take care of itself and no longer had someone to protect it.

  If only England had grown from that.

But it hadn't.

And in order to hide that fact I formed a union with my brothers and took the growth of the others over the simple stability the union gave England.

I close my eyes feeling Alba's arms around me for the last time, clinging to him I bite my tongue to keep from screaming when the pain doubles and triples into agony...

...To keep from begging him to stay.

He deserves this more than any of the others I've taken strength from and I won't make him stay chained to a memory any longer.

When he signs his name I bear the agony silently, smile, and use the last of my strength to keep my appearance as it should be.

Once the party starts I subtly hand him off to the Bad Touch Trio and make my escape into one of the empty palace gardens. From there I go in to the woods and finally allow myself to be given up to the fate I had tried to dodge for so long. And even though my vision is blacking out from the pain and it feels as if my life is being yanked from my chest...

.... I smile.

Because I have finally given my brothers and the world they live in what they want.

What they deserve.

What should have been so long ago.

A world where they are free and I don't hold them back from anything.