USUK

Pairing
Pairing:	America/England
Alternative name(s):	USUKUS, UKUS, beiei べいえい, eibei えいべい, libertea
Gender category:	slash
Fandom:	Hetalia: Axis Powers
Canonical?:	no
Prevalence:	very common
Archives:
Other:
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USUK is a very popular ship in the Hetalia: Axis Powers. Shippers have many different headcanons of when and who fell in love first, often in relation to the American Revolutionary War. Fics and art are popular for this ship.

Canon

Canon Moments that USUK shippers celebrate include:

-they do on a tour date in England

-the Valentine's Day strip

-in one panel with America suggests for England to dress in a Rio Carnival outfit to distract the enemy

-Many strips mention that England and America have a Halloween contest every year

-In a halloween strip, America says he chose England to dress up with him (in Batman and Robin costumes) because he was his first Twitter follower, and then admitting he came up with an excuse to get England to do it. Later England points out how it's suspicious that their costumes don't match and America intentionally picked out the one that shows off England's legs, to which America avoids the question and just remarks how it's interesting England even has Batman knowledge. Then America tells England to show off his legs more only to get de-masked by him.

-In the April Fool's panel, America is embarrassed by his skimpy apron costume, but then England tells him it suits him and starts pulling at the apron

Canon April Fool's strip panel

doujin cover by Sicago Shibuya depicting the two in the commonly re-drawn April Fool's outfits

-In the panel where America says that every New Year's he tries to think of someone to prank call and it always comes down to England

-In one strip, America and England go out to a pub together for New Year's, England teased him about ghosts, and then they actually start chatting about how it would be fun to open up a pub/cafe with historical figures of ghosts being the attraction

-In one moment, England and America are sleeping on the ground together, England is cold, and America is kind of turned towards him, but laughs and says something like "I won't do anything."

-In one strip they're talking about an alien invasion in England says he would sit back and watch America punch them

-In one strip they are spying in the bushes together and America says it seems like the kind of atmosphere where bloodthirsty monsters would come out, and England says that if he were a monster he would avoid America, animal instincts and all, and America winks at him and (flirts) says, "It can get pretty dangerous around me!" then England deadpans, "You do want me to slap you, don't you."

-In the counting sheep drama CD, England sings America a spooky lullaby about sleeping in the cradle of Hell

-England sleeps with a teddy bear while America sleeps in a teddy bear outfit.

Fandom

Fanon includes shipping the characters in nationverse and in many AUs where they are human. Fans use both the nation names and the human names given by Himaruya: Alfred F Jones for America and Arthur Kirkland for America.

Common Tropes and Fanon

England is often portrayed as a tsundere in contrast to America's strength and dominance. Although many fans are annoyed when fans portray England's character as too weak or an uke stereotype.

Cardverse is a popular AU based off of official art that divides the characters into different card suits. Alfred and Arthur are portrayed as the King and Queen of the Spades, respectively. A common trope within the AU is to have one of the pair be born into the royal family, and the other be born or develop a Spade's mark that designates them as the King or Queen.

Magical Strike is a human AU based off of a Hetalia episode that depicts France as a magical girl who goes on strike for a company that England works for and where America is the evil company president's son. In fanon, Arthur is often depicted as an overworked businessman and Alfred as his evil boss.

Art by Etoa, depicting the evil boss and unlucky businessman relationship in the magical strike au.

Controversies

Some hetalia fans, usually younger fans, dislike and sometimes harass usuk shippers because they claim the ship is incest. In canon the relationship could be described as a mentor and mentee relationship, and in the english dub they refer to each other as brothers, most likely in the Japanese sense where it is not to be taken literally. It is not uncommon for Hetalia fans in the english speaking fandom to see the pair as father and son and not ship the pair romantically. Meanwhile some shippers do lean into the father-son relationship and ship it as incest, while some prefer the ambiguity and like exploring the potential guilt England might feel for falling in love with someone he helped raise (although "raise" is to be taken lightly and open to interpretation as in canon England was mostly absent), and often times the conflict America feels for both hating and being in love with England at the same time (as he seeks/sought independence). Anti-fans of the ship were not as common during the early years of fandom but have become more common. One tumblr post created by a usuk-anti shipper was cited in a paper, The cult structure of the American anti (see Figure 3.) as an example of information control for implicitly telling fans not to ship USUK for it being incest, through a pastel image edit of England and and a young America and Canada.

Example Fanworks

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

for all categories, like links to MMDs, specific doujinshi, and fic from ffn

Fanfic

• The Hudson River Challenge by Monobuu, originally posted to the Axis Powers Hetalia Kink Meme, a one-shot about America struggling to manage a very drunken England as they hail a taxi cab that turns out to be a quiz show.
• England Enchanted by Zeplerfer, "After mistakenly ingesting an obedience potion during his New Year’s binge with Prussia, England desperately tries to find an antidote before anyone, particularly America, realizes what’s happening. His situation grows steadily worse until he can find the one sentiment that's strong enough to break the spell."
• Wrong Number by flybynight, "Arthur starts receiving phone calls from a stranger, a man he can't seem to stop talking to"
• Stranded by snowyfoxpaws, Omegaverse, America discovers that England has been an omega the whole time.
• Daddy's Little Roommate by outtogarden, "Alfred is complaining about his parents and his roommate Arthur decides to comfort him in a rather...unconventional way."
• Highway Cloudbusting by stardropdream, "Sick of politics and business as usual, England decides to indulge a rare moment of spontaneity and go on a roadtrip. He should have known that America would want to tag along. And they both should have known that the trip would set them down a path they couldn't turn away from."
• We'll Meet Again by George deValier, part of the Veraverse, a story originally posted to fanfiction.net but the author deleted all of his works without notice. A human AU set in WW2 where Alfred is a fighter pilot and Arthur is a pub owner in London.

Fanart

• Cardverse art by nearlycassidy
• Art by sloppyhay depicting the pair as childhood friends in an omegaverse AU.
• Art by sully-s depicting America and England dancing in an old photograph from the 20th century
• cardverse art by skully-cloud
• Nyotalia art by the askfem-usuk ask blog (mun canary-chan) depicting the "nyo" versions or the characters as women.

Doujin circles

• Hobby Hobby
• Bliss
• Hotama (Known for Arthur in the Dark)

Fanvids

Animatics:

• Dearest Masterpiece - USUK Animatic by Captain Jellyroll
• Rewrite the stars- Hetalia Animatic (USUK) by Gremblim

MikuMikuDance (MMD) Videos:

• Stay Dance - USUK MMD by Mikarin Nyan
• USUK - If You Were Gay MMD by PikaBlaze
• 【APヘタリアMMD＋人力】ハッピーシンセサイザ【味覚音痴 MMD by Riku
• 【APヘタリアMMD】ビターチョコデコレーション【味覚音痴】 MMD by ワニ夫くん

Zines

• USUKUStwiceperyear - twice a year the event publishes a zine with art and fic, based around a theme that the contributors vote on. Past themes include Uncommon Professions (2018.1) and The 20th Century (2020.2).

Archives and Communities

America/England works at AO3

The ‘Special Relationship’ Community on fanfiction.net

USUK stories on Wattpad