Alfred remembers when he first saw her -- she was wild and natural and very uncharted. He remembers her violent glare, and how it eased once he learned about her. He remembers her bright green eyes and her bare feet, calloused and cut.

I'm stretching out my legs, he told her.

Come with me.

Olivia was the name she chose for herself; her lawful name would come later. Before she met Alfred, her sisters were the sea and the trees. She knew that her friend to the south had already taken Alfred's hand. She didn't know -- and didn't quite care -- when he would come for her, but she knew he would. She distinctly remembered how the men Lewis and Clark traveled her, marking a trail that many others would later follow. She imagined this to be the first sign of Alfred's appearance.

When he did appear -- in person -- his bright hair seemed luminescent compared to her own. His clothes covered everything -- even looking at them, Olivia felt constricted. He held a kind smile on his lips, and held out his hand. She looked down and pushed his hand away.

I'll let you work things out, he told her. He still had that smile.

She was declared a territory -- not quite statehood, but nearing it. After Alfred's offer, inexplicably, there were more people settling on her land. People from his end of the continent. Olivia wondered if she minded becoming a state, but after some deep thought, she concluded that she didn't mind either way. But she knew that Alfred would come again, and she knew she would accept his offer.

--

"I'm glad you remember all that, Olivia," Alfred said, grinning in her direction. "It's important history."

"I remember things from before you were even concieved, I hope you know." Olivia answered, crossing her legs and looking blankly at Alfred. The round end table that separated their seats supported her elbow.

"You can't have! Isabelle, Ashley and you were still one person before I came around," Alfred argued, pouting. "Besides, you were practically a wild animal before Lewis and Clark."

"I'm still a wild animal at heart!" Olivia said, her posture tensing up. "I've just modernized a bit. Nothing wrong with that."

"Nope! I've modernized, too."

"Anyways, Alfred, I'm glad we had this nostalgia session, but I really have to go--" she said, standing up and turning to face him, making sure he understood that she did have to leave. She didn't expect him to stand up right after she did, effectively towering over her. She frowned up at him -- the top of her head only reached his collarbone.

"Hey, thanks for the talk," he said, and bent down, planting a short kiss on her cheek. "See ya."

With that, he turned around and walked the other way, giving her a short wave after he got a few yards away. She turned too, then, too stiff and awkward, trying to tell herself that she wasn't blushing.


--


sooooooooooo I've really really been wanting to do something with my homestate (Oregon). I can't ever get a drawing right, and the desire to write this just kind of popped up, so here it is. hope you like. I tried to keep it fairly historically accurate, but it was hard to personify some events, so I took a little license. I also desperately wanted to throw some fluff in there, so please note that that is not historically accurate as far as I know.

notes:
oregon officially became a state in 1859. the oregon trail started in 1842ish, and as we all (all?) know, that brought a large amount of people from the eastern US to the pacific coast. oregon's borders were decided in 1846, and oregon was declared a territory in 1848. since I grew up in Oregon, this Oregon Trail stuff is like basic knowledge, how about for you guys? Did anyone else play that crazy Mac game The Oregon Trail?

I decided that Isabelle is Washington and Ashley is California. i don't really know how accurate alfred's statement that "isabelle, ashley and you were all one person" is, but I think I'm making a safe assumption that there were no borders between the three states before America was settled. Actually, before America was settled, pretty much everything was one big territory. So, okay.

um, that's it! hope you guys like it. i'll do a welcome post for all my hetalia friending meme buddies once everyone rejects/accepts me, so look forward to that!