I laid in bed, board out of my mind, but greatful that no one else could see me this weak. Germany bombed my land, and it left me with a broken leg until the rubble cities could be rebuilt. They would be repaired sooner if my stupid boss didn't send everyone to the army instead of construction. A bunch of baboons with hammers in their hands (or feet) would be more useful than the construction workers in my country now. It was just pathetic.

While Germany was bussy bombing my major cities, Italy took his armies, and burned my banks behind my back, so now, not only was my leg broken, but my back was burned! And economy went down the drain after that. As if it couldn't get any worse, Japan killed all my trained soldiers, which snapped my arm like a twig. The doctor that I requested from France said that the sooner I replace the trained army, and rebuild the cities and banks, I should get better. Until then, he bandaged up my back, and put my arm and leg in a cast and slinged on poles that extended from my bed. (The doctor promised to keep it confedintial from France, so none of the other Allies would know.)

So that lead me to being board out of my mind on my bed. "Damn you Germany!" I cursed. "If you didn't bomb me, I wouldn't have been in this mess!" Suddenly, my phone rang. Not My Name. I chuckled as I reached over, and attempted to reach the answer button left handed. "Hey Canada." I greeted my boyfriend. We've been going out since before this damned war.

"Hey (country name)." he greeted. "Do you have any plans for dinner tonight?"

My eyes widened. None of the Allies knew about the bombing, burning, or the mass murders, especially not Canada. I could never build up the courage to tell him. "I...uh...already told (sibling) I'd have dinner with him." I lied. "You know how he is about our Brother Sister Bonding Time."

"But America told me that he was going to (sibling)'s party tonight." he stated confusingly. I mentally smacked myself as I forgot about my only (brother/sister)'s birthday party that was today. "Are you avoiding me or something?"

"No! No, no, no!" I stopped him. "W-why would I try to avoid you?" I mumbled out. "I-I mean, that's just crazy! That's implying th-that I have something to hide! Wha-what would I possible hide from you?!" I stuttered out.

"..._?" He always sounded serious whenever he used my human name. "What's going on? What's wrong?"

"N-nothing's wrong!" I protested. "I-I just-It's just that-You see, it's-I'm just in a-" I was interupted as I unknowingly pulled my bad arm and leg down, lossening the strings and, some how, with a yelp, I got tangled in the mess of strings and was left dangling over my bed.

As Canada heard the crashes and cries, he hung up, snatched his keys, and ran to his car. "Dude, Canadia, where're you going in such a hurry bro?" America asked in his mellow way, peeking out from his room in the middle of getting ready for the (sibling)'s party.

"I have to help (country name)!" he yelled back. "I think she's in trouble!"

My head jolted up when I heard the door bell. "No one's home!" I yelled as I struggled to untie myself from the poles and strings that held me just above my bed; only the tips of my hair that draped over the side of my head acctually reached the surface as I squermed.

"_!" Matthew called from the other side of the door. "You know that doesn't work on me any more!"

"Seriously!" I yelled. "Don't come in!"

"Are you alright?!"

"I'm just fine! Now go away!"

Building up all his courage, he turned the knob and pushed the front door open to the sounds of my grunting and struggling. He followed the sounds until he reached my bed room where he saw me squerming like a catterpiller in a string cocoon. When I saw him, I stopped and sighed, letting my hair fall in my face. "I hoped you, of all people, wouldn't see me like this." I mumbled.

I heard Matthew sigh as he walked over. "Hold still." he instrcuted as he gently lifted me, and unwrapped the strings from my form. I sank in my bed after he laid me back under the poles with the strings tightened, holding up my arm and leg like they were supposed to. I looked up at him, and he looked furious. "Why did you lie to me?!" he scolded. "How did this happen?!"

I sighed. "Germany bombed my major cities, Italy burned down my banks, and Japan killed all my soldiers."

"When did this happen?!"

I couldn't bear to look up as I answered, "Three months ago."

I heard him pace around my room and huffing in anger. As I dared to look at him, he sighed. "This is why no one's seen you at any of the meetings all this time?" I nodded. "Or why you rarely invite anyone over, or go anywhere anymore?" I nodded again.

I never liked seeing Matthew like this. My usually happy, shy, and cute Canadian was huffing and puffing, glareing at me and around the room. I sort of understood where he was comming from. Whenever something bad like this happened to him, I insist on him calling me, and I'm there with France and all his medic stuff in a flash (or at least as fast as France would go). I saw how it was unfair to him that I never told him, and basicly completely isolated myself for three months. If he ever did that to me, I would freak out, and assume the worst.

Leaning toward him, I tried to get his attention. "...Matthew-"

"WHAT!?" he barked, throwing his arms down from his hair.

Startled, I looked at him. He never barked at me like that before. Getting over the shock, I sighed. "...You should calm down." I finally encouraged. "There's nothing I could do about my mistake now. Just take a deep breath."

As I instructed, he took in a long, deep breath, and huffed it all out. "I'm sorry." he apologized. "It's just that, I worry about you. A lot. I don't think it's fair that everyone has to tell you when they're having problems, but you never talk to us about things like this." I nodded at the truth in his words. "And that's why I'm staying here." he finished as I shot him a look.

"What?"

"I'm staying here to take care of you." he clarified as I continued to stare.

"You don't have to do that." I stated. "I could take care of mys-"

Matthew stopped me right there. "How?" he asked. "You're litterally tied to the bed. How do you take care of yourself? How do you even feed yourself?"

"(sibling) cooks and leaves the food on my lap for me to eat." I answered.

"Your (brother/sister) is at his birthday party right about now." he reminded me. "How do you expect (him/her) to feed you when he has a party?" I froze at his statment. I did spend like two hours trying to convence my (brother/sister) to still have the party.

As if it knew exactly what we were talking about, my stomach growled. Covering it with my left arm, Canada smirked. "I'll make you some pancakes. Stawberries on top, no butter, extra syrup. Just how you like it." he stated as he kissed my head and left.

Matthew came back with a pile of butterless pancakes smothered in strawberries and syrup. He sat at the edge of the bed with the plate in his lap. "I apreciate you cooking the pancakes, but I can feed myself." I stated as he seemingly ignored me and cut all the pancakes in bite size pieces. "You really don't have to do that for me, I can take it from here." I continued as he continued ignoreing me. I watched as he stabbed a piece with the fork, swirled it in the syrup, and held the fork inches from my mouth. "What are y-" I was abruptly interupted as he pushed the fork in my mouth.

"Last I checked," he started. "you're not left handed." He gestured to my casted right arm hanging on the string, and I just looked at him as he gently pushed another bite of pancakes and strawberry past my lips.

After eating, Matthew changed out the bandages on my back, and stated that he was going to put the dishes away. Once that was done, he sat with me in my room and kept me company. "So, what all did I miss in the meetings?" I asked.

"Not much." he replied. "Even after three months, nothing was ever resolved, and it was always just another two hours waisted." I chuckled. "We acctually did wonder where you were all that time, and tried to visit, but your car was never in the drive way, so we assumed you weren't home."

He stopped with his thoughtfull mask over his violet blue eyes. "Now that I think about it, in all the UN meetings, when the subject of you came up, Germany, Italy, and Japan always got really quiet and just waited for the subject to change." He paused before continuing. "It was like they didn't want to give us any information on where you were, they never even interupted us to force a new subject on us. It was really scary. I was so relieved when you answered my call this morning."

I was silent for a while. I never thought about how unurving it must've been for him. "...I didn't want you guys to see me this weak, and leave me on my own to fend for myself. I knew that England was just fine only weeks after Germany's bombing on London. I thought that you would be more than dissapointed to see that I can't do that. Those damn Axis ganged up on me." He listened thoughtfully to my words. "I expected not to even be missed. I thought that I could miss a few months, no one would notice, and I could come back to work as if it never happened."

After a few more minutes of silence, I remembered something from when we talked on the phone. "Matthew," I started. "If you were scared, why did you sound so normal on the phone?"

He thought for a second. "I was so relieved to hear your voice again, I forgot about my fear."

"What exactly were you planing for dinner?" I asked.

I watched as my boyfriend gulped. "W-what makes you think I had a plan?"

I gave him a look. "A centery of being friends, and over a decade of dateing, I never knew you for the type to just wing it." I stated. "You never asked me to a date unless you had the whole thing planed out. Time, location, activities, everything."

"I-I-" he stuttered. "I was planing on driving up to your house, taking you to Romano's Maccarroni Grill, and telling you to order whatever you wanted." I listened, smiling at how it was going so far. He only took me out to eat somewhere that didn't seurve pancakes if he had a romantic evening planed.

"My boss gave me a huge raise, so I could spend as much money as I wanted on you. When you would leave to use the bathroom, just after the meal would come," He stopped and pulled out a small box. "I would take this box, take something out from inside, and hide it on your fork. Soon, you would come back to the table, and reach out to your fork, and see this on it's handle." He snapped the box open, and I gasped.

Inside was a white gold ring with a red dimond in the shape of a maple leaf. It sparkled in the light and I couldn't hold in the tears of it's beauty. "Once you would see it, I would've said, '_, you are truly the only one for me. You dissappeared for months, and it tore me apart. Take this ring, and promise to never leave me again. Marry me?' By then, you would either give me my dream come true, or walk away."

I stared at the ring he held, but didn't even notice that I wasn't expressing happiness until he sighed and closed the box. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"I know that look." he answered. "You don't like me that way. You're going to regect it."

He depressingly walked out of the room. I desperatly reached for his jacket. When he turned, I gently pulled him back, carressed his cheek, and pulled his lips to mine. He understood the message and, remembering advise he was given by the Big Brother of Europe, "embraced his inner French". I was surprised from how he used his mouth to pull me out of my cast prison, back to running... no... flying through the sky, hovering above clouds in the light blue sky. We flew all the way up past the clouds, above it all until we reached the sky lit by millions of stars flying in hearts around us and beyond. Never before in my life had I felt so free in one collision.

Much too early than I preferred, he pulled away. I felt his mouth exit mine, and I opened my eyes to see his beautiful smile and flirtatious violet blue eyes behind his wire frames. "Don't do that." I whispered. "Don't answer for me when you know it's wrong." I watched Matthew's smile grow bright as he slid the ring on my free finger. "I do." I whispered as I pulled him in again, ready to return to the heavens and beyond.