Unnoticed

England

A five-year-old Albion grabs onto the end of his ten-year-old brother Alba's cloak, refusing to let go.

"Don't go." He pleads uselessly. Knowing that there was nothing he could say to convince his eldest brother not to go into battle with his people. The redhead turned and looked at him with hard eyes the same emerald shade as his own before sighing and kneeling down to the younger's eye level. Albion clings to him, tears forming in his eyes as he begs for the elder to stay but to no avail. Alba separates himself from his youngest brother and holds him at arm's length, staring into the wet emeralds before him with loving eyes that won't reach the five-year-old.

The years since the Roman Empire had captured their mother had left little time for the caring, fun, laughter filled relationship that had once existed between them. It had been so long since anyone had time for the youngest Kirkland child.

So long since there had been someone there to dry his tears and bandage him up when he falls.

So long since someone had reminded him that his name was Albion, not Runt or Brat or any number of the insults that had suddenly become the only things he was left identify himself with.

So long since he had heard anyone say that he was loved.

"I'll be back, don't worry." Alba says, though it does little to soothe the fears that had built up over time in the little one's mind.

"Promise?" Albion asks, desperate for some kind of anchor to hold their destroyed family together.

The question rings in the air unanswered for a minute before Alba answers...

"... Promise ... "

But it was too late. That minute was one minute too long...

... And the damage it had brought to the blonde's mental state was irreversible...

... Not that anyone noticed.

- PAGE BREAK -

Albion, still in the body of a five-year-old, struggles uselessly to free himself from the Roman soldier holding him there. Not caring that the monster was clamping down on his arms with a force strong enough that bruises are already forming on his arms.

He doesn't mind the pain.

At this point, it is something of a constant in his life...

.... Something he deserves.

Not six feet from his mother and he can do nothing to save her from that man.

He is forced to watch. Not even allowed to divert his eyes as that man plunges his sword through her heart and she coughs up blood for a moment before slumping over...

... Dead...

And left alone with her corpse there was no one around to notice his tears.

-Let's take a break to sob our hearts out -

A six-year-old Britannia stands at the top of a hill looking down at the bloodbath around him. His eyes focusing when he sees them...

His royal family...

... Boadicea and her daughters...

Dead. Lying there in the rain and a pool made of their own blood. His heart breaks and he falls to his knees sobbing until he passes out from the battle beginning to affect his body.

Later he will wake up in his bed at that man's castle.

Later he will decide to never again become attached to a human.