The blonde haired man sighed, he hated coming up to Scotland on Halloween, not due to being afraid, far from it, he loved this time of year, until America came along and fucked up all the traditions.

Trick or treat? How the bloody hell is that going to scare away the devil? He thought grumpily, America's version was so, so, bland. The youngsters just demanded the sweets to be given to them for the effort that their parent's put into the costume.

How did such a tradition manage to taint my country? He thought as he finally arrived, he looked up at the house, hardly imposing and not something you would think his big brother would live in, but the nation did and for a short period so did he.

The reason why England, or Arthur as he was more commonly referred to, was here was due to one of Scotland's own fairies having travelled down in such a state of panic and fear, saying that his oldest brother had lost him mind again.

When did he ever have it? Arthur had commented only to be silenced by the fierce glare from the fairy.

"You forget what his country was like, the King of Norway had claimed the top half and the main land was divided," The fairy reminded him, although how could Arthur forget?

"I'll go and see him," He said, knowing that was what was required of him in the first place.

So, here he was, hunting down the key to get into his brother's house and having found it – under the door mat of all places! He unlocked the door and went inside, nothing was out of place.

He could however smell the alcohol coming from the kitchen; Please have him sober… Arthur repeated like a mantra, a sober Scotland was easier to deal with than a drunk one.

Sadly Arthur's prayers were to be unanswered, as they always were when he had to deal with his oldest brother.

The red head was drinking whiskey straight from the bottle, crumpled notes were laying around him and Arthur carefully stepped into the room, trying to be quiet but his brother head whipped over to him.

"Och, it's you," Scotland took another swig from the bottle and looked away.

"Yes it's me," Arthur fumed, he wasn't in the mood for this, all he wanted was to be at home with his own fairy friends, talking about the years gone by and how magic had changed; "Your own magical creatures are worried about you,"

"Tch, and bonny England mons up to see me? Nah! Ya want somethin',"

"You are an idiot!" Arthur shouted; "The fairies care about you, I care about you, am sure Wales and the Ireland brothers care too! "

Scotland waved him away, refusing to listen when his youngest brother did something he didn't expect, he pushed him off his chair.

"What the fuck do ya…" Scotland struggled to stand and Arthur could see why, he had started drinking rather early given the amount of empty bottles around the place.

"You are a mess," Arthur said, not offering to help, that wasn't what the UK family did.

"Aye, an' wha' of it?" Scotland sat up again and resumed drinking.

"Brother…" Arthur said with a sigh; "What happened? Nothing would make you drink this much…"

"They're in ma head again…" Scotland tugged at his red hair and Arthur felt a pang of fear.

"B.. But you've been unified for…" Arthur began and Scotland shook his head; "I…"

"Sh!" Scotland tried to hit him; "They are back, saying that my nation will be split into pieces again… No Royal blood can save it… This will be my end," He began to laugh manically, the noise sent a cold shiver up Arthur's spine; "I won't annoy you like that Prussia does to Germany, nae bother of that,"

"Please…" Arthur began, hating to see his brother return to what he had been so long ago, a nation that had been divided into so many pieces, too many, that it ended up damaging his mind.

Scotland was normally… Well, normal, but sometimes when bad days were extremely bad and he felt overly stressed, this is what happened, he couldn't think properly and anything that was sad he would ignore it and think of his own demise.

Arthur decided that he had to join him, picking up an unopened bottle of whiskey, he drank it straight from the bottle, his brother didn't make a noise of complaint about it, completely out of it.

"Ya know wee yin…" Scotland began to speak after what felt like an hour of silence; "Oor mater, oor maw," He paused to drink more whiskey; "Always said you'd do great thing,"

"Yes, am sure she did," Arthur said sarcastically, his brothers never spoke of their mother to him, aside from cruel jokes, just because he couldn't remember a thing about her didn't mean that he didn't feel the pain those jabs caused.

"Aye she did, we were all jealous. Cos she said nothing about us. Nothing about exploring the world and the like. Nah, she talked about you, you were the one she cared about most wee yin," Scotland looked at him brother, green eyes connect and Arthur thought he could see the sanity that appeared to have been lost; "Ya were the one she pined her hopes on, the one who would gain more power than the Roman Empire. We hated ya,"

"Why… Why did you take care of me? When… When she left?"

"Regardless of oor hate, ya're family. When that bloody wall was created… Well Roman's are idiots, didnae matter, course then France came over and ya seemed to be all right on yer own,"

The two became silent once more, realisation occurred over them, Arthur realised that his brother's didn't actually hate him but of the predictions that their mother had made of him and only him. It was jealousy, pure and simple, nothing more or less.

"You left me with France… I had to deal with France on my own… And then…"

"Aye, well myself and Francis are close an' that ya ken?"

"Until he left you on your own,"

Scotland's eyes narrowed at him; "Aye, an' what of it? Didn't I help you with the war in America? Didn't I help with all your other wars in all those countries in the Empire? Even though your own people looked down at my own people, regarding us as barbaric and uncivilised?"

Arthur wasn't surprised; his brother could easily switch his moods around like someone could flip a light switch. It scared nations who didn't know the red haired nation well; Italy had been terrified when he had been properly introduced to Arthur's older brother. It was a rather funny sight; Germany had refused to get involved for a moment or two.

He's going back to normal. Arthur thought with a sigh, relieved that he wouldn't have to spend a long time here.

"It's Halloween and you're getting yourself drunk,"

Scotland sighed; "When do I do anything on Halloween? It's not our traditions anymore,"

Arthur didn't move, he had wanted to go, get into his care and head home, but now? Now his brother had opened up to him, not only that but his accent had changed, still the Scottish lilt but not as gruff. His brother wanted to talk.

"Yes, our traditions are just 'out-dated'…" Arthur said with a sigh.

"Aye, backwards…"

The two continued to talk about the old Halloween traditions and eventually that lead up to discussing America. Needless to say the two countries both agreed that America was an idiot and nothing that Arthur did or said back then would have changed him.

As Arthur listened to his brother rant he felt at home, he felt comfortable, with no fear around him, like they were truly connecting as a family.