Another normal meeting. Another normal day. Another day of sitting around and paying no attention to America's blathering, except to disagree with him. For England, anyway. Italy would attempt to pay attention, but ultimately fail. As per usual, no one got anything done today. Why they still held meetings and went out of their way to go around the world to talk about nothing was anyone's guess.

It was an average place, with an odd layout. While most nations were near the meeting room, Italy and England were downstairs.

England walked slightly ahead of Italy. He heard the soft chatter behind him, and looked down the bright corridor ahead of him. The carpet was soft, and made his footsteps inaudible. This couldn't be said for the jolly-footed Italian. Generally ignoring each other, they headed towards the lift that went closest to both their rooms. The smell of the metallic elevator was slightly dampened by the soft carpet inside.

Neither noticed the rust creeping in the seams of the welding of the doors.

They did, however, notice the slight grinding as the doors slid together. But they didn't give that much thought. They just stood in silence, waiting for the lift to descend. But when it did, it was clunky and awkward, like a key going into the wrong type of lock. On the bright side, it was only for a few metres.

On the dark side, it was because the lift had stopped completely.

The air hung still for a second as they both realised what was happening. Fear rose in them both and then they stepped towards the door cautiously as if it may attack. England tapped it twice with his knuckles. This served absolutely no purpose whatsoever.

"Uh…" Italy mumbled uselessly; almost as uselessly as England's tapping. England was staring aggressively the door now. If there were an award for most useless actions done within a small period of time, they would come second after that one time America tried to do a few things involving a spoon, a bunch of grapes, an uncooked fish and a table. They eventually realised how useless this was, and figured they should do something. But their options were limited, so they couldn't do much else.

"Is it stuck?" Yes. Yes it is Italy and you fucking know it. The knowledge that they were stuck sank into him at last, and he made a small wailing sound. England realised that Italy would start crying soon if he didn't do something fast. But since he had no idea what to do, he just stared at him. Reassurance was probably the key here.

"There there Italy, I'm sure it will start moving again in a second. In fact, I bet it will start again right now!"

"Riiiiiiiiiight now!"

"RIGHT now!"

"…now!"

"…"

"Bollocks."

This did the opposite of reassuring Italy. It made the soft wailing into hard, stuttered wailing. England was beginning to panic too, but he wasn't about to let anyone know.

"I'm sure we'll be out of here in no time at all! People care about you! They wouldn't leave you here. Now, if I was on my own in here, it would probably be a different story." Italy picked up on England's self-dismissal talk.

"You shouldn't say that! I'm sure you'd have loads of people concerned!"

"Ha! As if! The only reaction of everyone else would be happiness at me stuck in a lift. I bet that if you weren't trapped with me, I would end up stuck here forever, and people would be glad!" Italy flinched but England stood tall, in his usual self-defensive crossed-arm smirk as if he hadn't just down talked himself.

"That's not true! People care about you! I shouldn't have to tell you this!"

"No! You wouldn't know what it's like, being lonely. You're the adorable pasta man, everyone loves you! I'm just the island that's mutually hated by everyone." England realised he had said too much and looked away, fiddling with his thumbs.

"We should just wait for someone to come for you." With that final note, he turned into the corner and sat down, leaning forwards into the wall with crossed legs. He was awkwardly curled up and hunched.

Italy looked down at him. It felt odd to see someone who owned half the world and made everyone bow down to him so small. Now he thought of it, the brit had always been alone. A sudden wave of realisation washed over him, and he felt sorry for him. He just needed a friend. Italy sat down behind him and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Hey."

No response.

"I don't hate you."

England curled up slightly tighter. Italy crawled slightly closer. He silently reached up to the alarm button and pressed it before leaning forwards again, and hugging England softly. He moved a bit at first but soon felt comfy and happy. Then he noticed something.

"Hey, wasn't I supposed to be comforting YOU?"

"Oh. Oh yeah."

Italy giggled softly.

"We're probably going to be stuck here for about an hour or so," England said to change the topic.

"And you can let go" he continued

"It's cold in here!" Italy whined.

England sighed, but deep down felt secure in his arms; it had been so long since someone last showed him affection. And for the first time in ages, he smiled warmly and genuinely.

"C'mon, dude, our friends are in there!"

"Fine, you can look inside, sir." The hotel attendee had grown oh so tired of America's whining.

"Amerique, this isn't necessary! The staff will get them both out."

"Yeeeeeeeeeeah, but I wanna ask them what it's like being stuck in an elevator! It sounds boring but also scary!"

France sighed as he turned to the ladder placed at the lift door and started climbing up.

"Yo, dudes!" America looked through the gap in the door the staff had made.

Italy and England were sat at the back, huddled together and snoring softly under England's trench coat. If they were awake, they would have laughed at America's face.