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Picked Up

Summary:

After graduating from college and having no plans for his future, Alfred Jones decides to take a month long trip to China only to run into a strange, but kind, old man. After that, his life gets turned upside down as he discovers that his may no longer be able or allowed to leave China.

Notes:

This is my first fanfiction regarding the Hetalia Fandom and my second fanfiction all together. Please be kind and let me know what you think. I my change the title later because I'm not in love with it. Special thanks to my beta reader.

Chapter 1: Chapter 1: Welcome to Beijing

Chapter Text

Alfred’s head throbbed with stress as he sat down with his suitcase at what he thought was a cafe. It was hard to know for sure, considering he didn’t speak the native language in this region. He had touched down in Beijing Capital International Airport three hours ago and was currently trying to figure out how to get to his hostel nearly halfway across the city. He sat in a wooden chair on the shop’s patio as people passed him by, glancing his way but otherwise paying him no mind.

He looked up from his phone at his surroundings. The shop was somewhat secluded. It was located down an alleyway, separating them from the busy street; only a handful of people were around. Two women chatted in mandarin near the entrance to the shop. Occasionally their giggles floated through the air, making the surroundings seem more pleasant. There was also a group of three young men, maybe teenagers, who occasionally glanced his way, observing him in a way that Alfred couldn’t decipher. Though he guessed they may be curious about the foreigner in their space. Alfred wished they would approach him. That way, he could ask them for directions. He was completely lost.

If Arthur had been there then… No. No, Alfred couldn’t think about that. He glanced down at his phone again. His first thought was to go to Reddit for advice. That’s where he would normally go, but the page wouldn’t load. Would his phone even work in this country? Arthur had said…

Alfred rubbed his face in frustration. This wasn’t supposed to be so complicated.

Movement suddenly caught the corner of Alfred’s eye. Down the alleyway, he spotted an elderly gentleman warily meandering down the alley. The way his eyes flicked around his environment made him look terribly lost. Alfred felt his pain. The white tuft of hair on his head swayed with every turn of his head. His wrinkled face scrunched in confusion in a way that reminded Alfred of his grandfather. Dementia had withered the man’s mind, not even recognising Alfred by the end of his life.

Alfred, lost in thought, hadn’t noticed the elderly man approaching him until their shadows mingled and the sun was blotted out. He glanced up at the old man and found recognition in his eyes.
“George?” The old man asked in a thick Chinese accent, a hope in his voice that startled the blond.
“Um… Hi, no, I’m sorry, my name’s Alfred,” He wasn’t sure the old man understood what he was saying but it didn’t seem to matter. The man’s face broke into a wide smile as he bent down. Alfred immediately feared the man would keel over, so he quickly stood to stabilize him. However, as soon as he was up, the man’s arms looped around him in an unexpected hug.

Alfred was stunned as he listened to the man whisper in Mandarin; to himself or to Alfred, he wasn’t sure. The blond stood there, letting the man hold him like a long lost friend until letting him go to cradle his face.
“是你。我找到你了。我终于找到你了。 ” The man’s eyes filled with tears and he whispered to the American. Alfred didn’t know what he was saying, but clearly, this man had some memory problems and thought he was this “George” character. Did he have a caretaker or someone looking after him?

Alfred’s grandfather had once left their home in a state of confusion when Alfred was eight years old. He didn’t remember much, but he remembered his mom being borderline hysterical as she called 911. His father drove around the city for hours until they got a call from the police letting them know that his grandfather was found unharmed. A woman had found him sitting by himself in peaceful ignorance and decided to start a conversation with him. While speaking, the proper authorities spotted them, and he was returned without any memory of being missing in the first place.

Alfred didn’t know how to get a hold of Beijing police, but judging by the man’s attire, there was certainly someone looking for him. He was dressed very nicely in an ironed, white, long sleeve shirt and dark dress pants. He looked sophisticated compared to Alfred’s blue jeans and band logo t-shirt. The man was hunched due to his age, and yet he held himself with a worldliness and experience that intrigued the younger man.

“Hey, I’m so sorry, I don’t speak Mandarin.” Alfred smiled as he grasped the man’s wrists and gently guided his hands away from his face. The man never took his eyes off Alfred, even as Alfred glanced to where the man had been walking from. He doubted anyone would come this way to look for their charge. He could feel eyes crawling over him from the other patrons, and their questioning gazes finally gave him the push to lead the old man towards the regular populace.

“Hey, how about we head over there to talk?” Alfred took the man’s hand in his and led him toward the busy street. The man came along without a fight.
“我有一个孙女。她的名字是,叫什么名字 ?” Alfred smiled as the man spoke. He clearly couldn’t tell that Alfred didn’t speak Mandarin, or perhaps he just didn’t care. However, the man seemed happy to speak. Perhaps he wasn’t able to have conversations that often and jumped at the opportunity.

The two slowly made their way into the sunlight of the sidewalk. The bustling city seemed to wait for no one. People of all walks of life flooded around them: men in their business suits, women with their groceries, parents watching their children… but no sign of someone looking for their runaway elder. Alfred’s attention turned back to his new acquaintance. Dark eyes stared back at him with a look that could only be described as bittersweet.

“George, you okay?” Alfred blinked, before smiling. So the man spoke some English. That’s good. Very good. Alfred only memorized a few words in Mandarin for this trip. He promised Arthur he would learn more but…
“Oh, um, shì de.” Alfred struggled to remember the word for yes, his automatic answer to that question for the past couple weeks. The man examined him, before leaning in closely,
“You look tired,” the older man spoke before giving the blond a patient look, like a parent waiting for their child to tell them the truth.

Alfred’s smile tightened, he knew that look. The one his brother often gave him when he clocked one of Alfred’s lies, and wanted him to know. Alfred hated that look. It made him feel small. Insignificant. Weak. However, the old man was right; Alfred was tired. He’d been drained from the plane ride that had refused him any sleep. He calculated that he had been awake for at least thirty hours. His body had been feeling the effects of sleep deprivation. He felt weighted down and sluggish. His mind had been a turbulent sea since before he boarded the plane, and now that he was hundreds of miles away from anything he could call home, surrounded by people he didn’t know and speaking a language he didn’t understand, he had no Earthly idea why he decided to be where he was.

Alfred was yanked out of his floating thoughts by a sudden shout.
“ 祖父 !” Alfred stepped away from the old man as two people came barreling toward them. One went straight to the elder, speaking rapidly while the other blocked the American's line of sight. The man that acted as a human body shield was tall, wearing a black t-shirt that complemented his muscular physique. He wore black pants and heavy duty boots that looked sturdy enough to kick down a house if the wearer chose to. Around his neck lay a heavy silver chain, and Alfred swore he could spy the linework of a tattoo peeking out from under his shirt.

“Woah, hey! I wasn't doing anything," Alfred rushed out as the man started advancing towards him.

" 等待。" The man immediately halted where he stood and turned slightly to reveal the person behind him. When Alfred briefly saw these two people approach, he had assumed the person who went straight to the old man had been a woman due to their long hair that was whisked up in an elegant bun. However, looking at them again, it was clearly a man that now stood before him. He was slightly shorter and a lot thinner than Alfred was. He wore a tailored black suit that oozed superiority, and the scowl on the man's face accentuated that point. The man’s nose crinkled at him with a vague look of disgust and a healthy dose of distrust.

"Who are you?" he asked in confident English. His accent wasn't as thick as the old man's, but it was still prominent.
"Um, Alfred," the blond answered.
"What are you doing with this man?" The one with the bun nodded towards his elder, and Alfred took a deep breath, knowing he needed to carefully defuse this situation before it escalated.

"Okay, so, I was sitting at the shop in the alleyway, the coffee shop, at least I think it was a coffee shop. I can't really read Mandarin so I'm not sure if they mostly sell coffee or if it's more of a bakery sort of deal, but anyway, I was sitting there, and this guy comes up to me asking if I'm George, and I was like, 'No I'm Alfred, sorry,' but he wasn't really listening and so I thought he might be lost and confused and I thought someone might be looking for him so I decided to get him out here to be more visible and obviously it worked because you're here now and, and, yeah..." Alfred trailed off, realizing he was rambling.

Over the course of his spiel, the shorter man's posture became more and more relaxed, though his facial expression never faltered. After a few beats of silence, the old man spoke up.
" 他是乔治。" The stern man's face softened as he turned to their elder.
" 爷爷,不。 这个人不是乔治。他太年轻了 " He glanced back to the blond for a moment before speaking again,
"但是是的,他确实看起来像乔治 。" The long-haired man motioned wordlessly to his muscular comrade to take the elder away toward where they had come from.

The tall man carefully herded their senior away, and Alfred was soon left alone with the well dressed man. The brunette stared at the blond for a moment with an expression Alfred wasn't sure how to interpret. The man then suddenly bowed at his hips as he said,
"Thank you very much for caring for my grandfather," before straightening.

"Oh! Yeah, it's no problem. My grandfather once ran away from home and I..." Alfred’s words petered out as he realized the other man was already walking away.

He stood in bewildered silence for a moment before huffing to himself and heading back to the café. Rude. He wouldn't even listen to his story. 'That's what you get for being a hero, all responsibility without any reward,' Alfred thought bitterly, but the idea that he had helped a stranger filled him with pride. Alfred liked helping people and knew that karma would reward him for his good deed.

When he got back to the shop, however, he paused. Everything was the same except that the three young men were gone. Though, that was not what caused Alfred’s falter. Where Alfred’s luggage once sat, now sat nothing. Gone. Stolen.
“Fuck.”