Canada sighed quietly and tapped his fingers on the long mahogany meeting table, where yet another World Meeting was taking place. Thankfully, Kuma… Kuma… Kumajiki? Thankfully, his bear was the only thing sitting on him today, which must have been a bit of luck for him. Not that Canada felt very lucky on that day. No, not when even… Bear couldn't seem remember him for more than five seconds.

Normally, none of this would have fazed the large country in the slightest, but today was no ordinary day. Today was July 1st, also known as Canada Day, or, to people who knew about personifications, his birthday. But everyone at the meeting was hyped up for something else: America's giant birthday party, the one he held every single year without fail. Even the hyper country's enemies would get excited about the event, since the American's one and only rule was that no one was allowed to act like a country for even a minute on that day; no matter what was going on in their home. Everyone loved the idea of acting human for a day, so his parties always had an amazing reputation.

Of course, in comparison to an event so huge and anticipated, along with the fact that Hong Kong's birthday, complete with fireworks and a giant cake, fell on the same day, Canada's little house party was rarely enough to make it onto any country's calendar. Last year, his 145 birthday, not even France had shown up, since it was Hong Kong's 15th hand-over anniversary, and it would seem that 15 is a more important age to reach than 145.

Canada understood the dilemma, he really did, and he usually had no problem spending his birthday alone if it would make it easier for others to choose what they wanted to do, but this year, for some reason, he was feeling lonelier than usual, and wanted people around to reassure him he wasn't completely alone and forgotten. Unfortunately, he knew that there would be no such reassurance, since he was, apparently, alone and forgotten, and even if he had been able to say anything, he doubted it would have changed that fact.

Oh, here we go, he thought to himself, watching Hong Kong stand up and invite everyone to his party, like he did every year, then everyone nod their consent and wish him a happy birthday, like they did every year. No one so much as looked in his direction. Another year alone it is, he thought glumly.

On his way out the door, he managed to capture the notice of Hong Kong. "H-hello," he whispered in his usual tone, "H-happy birthday."

"Oh…" Hong Kong mumbled, in his monotone way, "Thank you-"

"Canada," the blonde graciously replied.

"Right. Thank you, Canada," he restated, "Will you be at my party tonight?"

Canada laughed awkwardly. "Sorry, I can't. I'm… very busy right now. But I'm sure I'll be missing an amazing time. Anyway…" He dug around in the tote bag he brought especially for this occasion, "here's your present." He handed Hong Kong a large wrapped box. Inside was a fireworks lamp he had searched all over E-bay for, since he'd heard something about Hong Kong's fear of the dark, and thought it would both help with the problem and be a nice decoration in his room.

"Thanks," Hong Kong mumbled, taking the box.

"I hope this will make up for my absence at your party tonight," Canada said.

"Yes, definitely… hey, will I see you at America's party on the fourth?" he asked.

The blonde chuckled. "Most likely, considering he's my brother and would never let me miss it for anything." That, and people seemed to notice him a little more when they didn't have to act like countries.

"Really? I didn't know America had a brother… well, have a good day. I'll see you on the fourth," Hong Kong said, effectively ending the conversation.

"… if you still remember me by then," Canada whispered to himself as the brunette walked away...

Later that night, at his own house, Canada sat in front of a blazing fireplace, warming his toes from their trip outside to cut more firewood. As much as he loved the wonders of modern heating and cooling, nothing could beat a crackling fire in his book. On one side of him laid Kumajirou, sleeping soundly after a nice fish feast. On the other were around twenty giant bottles of maple syrup, a few large stacks of pancakes, and a huge bowl of punch. It was already 9:30 pm at his house, which meant that in Hong Kong it was already 9:30 am tomorrow.

It wasn't like he'd expected anyone to come. I mean, Canada Day was a pretty big holiday, and people in a lot of different places celebrated it, but it wasn't like his fireworks displays could compare to Hong Kong's.

But that didn't matter! He was the second largest country in the world! He should have been more than capable of having fun on his own! But it was July, so there was no snow on the ground, it was getting late, so he couldn't go out and do anything, and he didn't really have anything much to do inside house, since most of the time he was either working, out and about, or making pancakes, which he had already done. Okay, so he couldn't have fun on his own.

"I wonder how things were at Hong Kong's party…" he mumbled to himself, relaxing into the love seat he was sharing with his pet. I bet they're all passed out right about now, he thought, Germany, England, Prussia, Denmark, and Russia probably didn't even make it back to the hotel…

Sighing, he settled deeper into the fluffy folds of the couch, picked up a plate, pancake, and some maple syrup, and started eating. No reason for him to starve just because no one wanted to come visit him on his birthday…

"Hey! You seriously started eating already?!" an obnoxious voice called from the other side of the room. Canada, who had just about finished off the pancake already, jumped right out of his seat.

"A-America!" he whisper-screamed, "Wh-what are you doing here? How did you get in?!"

America laughed, "You leave your door unlocked, remember? That's really not very smart. Anybody could get in here!"

"It doesn't matter. Nobody even remembers I'm here half the time, so there's really no point in locking it. Not even animals come near here," Canada replied quietly.

America sighed. "Dude, you're seriously way too trusting of the human race! Anyway, we can talk about that later. For now, let's pack up these pancakes and maple syrup! I'm happy you made them, though; otherwise I would have had to ask Belgium to make us some waffles, and Netherlands would have charged me way too much for them!"

"B-Belgium? Netherlands? Why would they-" Canada began.

"Let's just find some boxes for all this. Dude, how do you have so much maple syrup just lying around? Seriously, all that sticky stuff in your living room isn't even scratching the surface! Even your flag…" America interrupted.

"I like it; is there a problem with that?" Canada muttered, taking the heavy box America thrust into his hands, and almost collapsing under its weight. "How can you carry things like this so easily?" he asked, but it was no use; America was still babbling about the northern country's obsession with maple syrup.

Finally, America finished packing all the food and the whirlwind of sound left the house. Unfortunately, Canada ended up swept right along with it. "Where are you taking me, America?" he asked, staring at the giant trees ahead of him. "There's nothing out there but dead trees!"

"Just wait and see, dude, just wait and see," came the American's vague response.

A few minutes later, America stopped, took the boxes from Canada's hands, set them down, and pulled out a long, thick, black piece of fabric. "Okay, dude, hold on…" he tied the fabric around Canada's violet eyes, glasses and all. "Now for these…" Canada heard him grunt a little as he picked up all the boxes in one hand, then felt him grab his own hand with the other. Slowly, the southern country led his brother through the longest stretch of the woods…

From a fourth of a mile away, Canada could hear the music. The bass vibrated heavily, but didn't give off the impression that it was heavy music being played. It more sounded like light, soft music being played at an insane volume. "America, what's that sou-"

"What sound? I don't hear anything!" America replied much too quickly.

"Okay…" Canada mumbled. He hoped he wasn't going crazy…

The sound of music continued to grow louder and louder, until Canada was sure that either a) America was lying and he could hear the music, or b) he had officially lost it and his head was about to blow up.

Just as he was about to convince himself that "b" was the correct answer and he was about to face his death, America stopped, dropped his hand, and told him to wait there. Confused, Canada shifted from foot to foot waiting for America to come back. It took about fifteen minutes, or so he estimated, but finally he heard his brother's footsteps crunching over leaves again..

"Okay, dude, come with me," America exclaimed, practically dragging Canada closer to the music. A few hundred yards later, he stopped again. At this point, the shy nation was seriously starting to wonder if America had taken him to the middle of the woods for an impromptu "camping trip". It had happened before. But the second America untied the black fabric from his eyes, he knew that wasn't the case. The giant field, usually dull and dead, now held an abundance of color and life.

A mix of multicolored and white lights hung from every available surface, tables upon tables of interesting foreign food stretched on and on into the distance, Canadian music blasted out of a few gigantic amps that, had they been one of America's burgers, would have been triple-super-sized compared to normal, and a portable wooden bar housed hundreds of liquors to suit every taste. The only thing missing, it seemed, was the people.

The party seemed like it could feed thousands and still have plenty of leftovers, and yet not a soul was there besides America and himself. "America…" the colder country asked, "you aren't planning on eating all this by yourself, are you?" Canada had plenty of faith in his brother's eating skills, but this was just too much for two people to eat on their own; even if one of them regularly ate fifty hamburgers for breakfast.

Thankfully, America only laughed. "No, Mattie, I'm not," he replied, using Canada's affectionate nickname.

"Then who's gonna-" Canada began, but was cut off by seemingly all the countries in the world jumping out and screaming at the top of their lungs, "SURPRISE!"

At first, Canada had absolutely no idea what to make of any of this. He looked behind him, checking to see if Hong Kong was there and this was just some kind of after-party that happened to be in his home country, but found no one there. "Wh-wha… is this… for me?" he asked, voice whisper soft. Everyone seemed to understand what he was trying to say, though.

"America, the frog, Hong Kong, and I planned everything," England replied, stepping out from the crowd, "Hong Kong brought up the idea to us, since he felt bad about forgetting your birthday, even though apparently you so kindly remembered his, and we, of course, were all for it. It's hard, you know, trying to choose which birthday party to attend every year. So from now on, we unanimously decided that you and Hong Kong are just going to have one giant party; like this."

Canada's eyes widened. "R-really? That's amazing! But when did you have time to set all this up? It's so… extravagant!"

"We all came here right after the meeting and started setting up. Thankfully, America remembered how to get here from all those camping trips years ago, or we would have had to go by your house and ask, which you have been quite an awkward conversation for everyone…"

"Yeah dude, you're so lucky the hero was there to help!" America yelled.

"You git! Don't take full credit for this! All you did was lead us here and carry some boxes! I had to plan the whole thing out with that frog and Hong Kong!" England exclaimed, mood turning from happy to sour in the blink of an eye.

"But if I hadn't been carrying all that heavy stuff, you couldn't have accomplished anything!" America pointed out.

"I could very well have done this by myself, you…" Canada tuned out their argument, instead opting to look around at the party, which was now finally starting to get going. The amps continued to blare out a mix of Canadian and Chinese music, with the occasional foreign request every once in a while. Countries from all over the world were talking and laughing like they didn't have any political obligations, ties, or anything. As he set off to find and thank Hong Kong, he smiled and realized that even though in a few days this would happen all over again in an even more extravagant way, tonight wasn't for America, it was for him; him and Hong Kong. And even though he'd never pictured sharing his birthday like this, he found he couldn't have been happier…


Hi~! It's applechan53! So I know I kind of dropped off the face of the Earth recently, but in my defense I've been SUPER busy lately.

Alright, so now I'm going to explain how this works. This is story part one of three. I haven't written the other two yet, though. What I'm planning on is having them all build off of each other, so the next one will be this story from Hong Kong's point of view, and the last one will be a few days later at America's party.

I would love to write more, but it's so late right now and I need sleep for Canada Day/ Hong Kong's hand-over anniversary, so I hope you enjoy!