"America, please tell me you did not drag me all the way from the meeting hall here, just to get a burger." Staring blankly at the huge letter 'M' sculpture in bright yellow paint and red base, England asked in a rare flat tone.

"Huh? Of course not!" America laughed as he waved his left hand.

"Good, because I happen to-"

"It is not just any burger you know, it is THE burger!" America exclaimed in his loud and energetic voice, covering England's voice easily.

"…" England was speechless.

"They just released the newest flavour today and I just have to get it!" America waved both hands in the air excitedly, looking a lot like a kid who was about to get his new toy.

"…I don't even want to know what the new burger is like." England sighed and decided that he was too tired to quarrel with America. "But must you come here immediately after the meeting?" The idiot literally ran for the door when Japan announced that the meeting was over, pulling him along without explaining anything at all.

"Totally! Do you know how long the queue will be if I am not fast enough?" America gave England the surprised look, "What if I came too late and when it was finally my turn, they ran out? I even skipped my breakfast for this! The hero must have THE burger!" With that, America let out a battle cry and charged into the crowded Ma*Donald in a not-so-heroic way, while the not so enthusiastic England slowly followed behind, muttering something like "Oh, so those 12 cups of milkshake were not his breakfast?"

When England was finally able to squeeze through the entrance, he had completely lost sight of America in the overcrowded and cramped restaurant. The air smelled of the fries that England refused to call by its name, and instead, refer to them as fried fries. Please, they were in no way related to that bearded wanker, so why call it 'French' fries? England bet that even the potatoes used to make the fries came from either Germany or America's own backyard. Then it was the hamburgers. There was absolutely no ham in any of those hamburgers America ate, and according to America, he has tried all flavours of hamburgers available on the market. Why call it 'HAMburger', when there was obviously not going to be any ham no matter how you try to look between the buns to see if there were any tiny bits of ham hidden in them? Let's not start on the diet soda. Let's just not.

While England was still having that little complain about how people name things, he felt something vibrate in the pocket of his pants and realized that it was his phone. Fishing it out of the pocket, England pressed the 'read' button as the phone's screen displayed a new message. It was from America, "Hey England, I am almost at the counter now! *Excited* Can you help scout for an empty table? I will join you soon! :D"

Looking up from his screen, England managed to catch America waving at him from somewhere in the middle of the messy crowd, a big cheeky grin was on his face. Putting the phone back into his pocket, England nodded to America, who went back to drooling at the poster of THE burger pasted above the counter. Admitting his luck, England manoeuvred his steps as he skilfully wriggled his way through the lumps of people and finally, to a small empty plastic table with two chairs nailed to the ground. He sat down on one of the chairs, rested his chin on his hand, and waited.

As England watched the people walk past him, chatting and laughing their hearts out, he felt rather out of the picture. The whole scene was like a puzzle, each individual represented by a puzzle piece. The piece that represented him, however, was different from the other pieces. Sure his piece would look different in terms of shape and content, but one huge characteristic made his piece stand out. His puzzle piece was colourless while the others were filled with vibrant, bright colours. Picture a field of red roses that goes on forever, and in this particular field, was a black rose. Now that certainly would be an eyesore. England was not exactly pleased to be the black rose either. But today was not the best day, not when he woke up early in the morning for a meeting that lasted for 5 hours, then got pulled to a typical fast food restaurant to help America secure a seat… This kind of situation would have him pissed and jumping during normal days. But for some unknown reason, he just could not bother to retaliate today.

Speaking of which, where was America?

"E-excuse me sir." England felt a soft tap on the back as man wearing the Ma*Donald uniform came into his view. "I was told to give you this." The man pushed a brown paper bag to England.

"Huh-? Oh. Thank you very much." England took a close look at the paper bag, and after confirming that he had no idea why he should be getting, lifted his head to ask the man about it. But he was surprised to find no one in front of him at all. As if, that man just disappeared…

After blankly staring at the spot where the man was for a few seconds while questions clouded his mind, England decided that America was probably still queuing up, and turned his attention to the paper bag instead. There was nothing special about the bag itself. It was just one of those paper bags Ma*Donald uses for takeaways. But why would he get one? He did not order anything. Could it be America's?

With that in mind, England opened the bag, and the first thing that came into sight was a box containing one hamburger. To be exact, THE hamburger. Puzzled, England picked the box out of the bag, and felt something beneath the box. It was a sticky note. On it, was a line of hand written words. Judging from the handwriting and the splatter of tomato sauce and coke marks at the corners of the note, England was almost immediately sure that America wrote it, "Sorry dude! I've to attend to sth important. Do ya mind bringing my burger to me? THX! "

…At least that explained th- THE burger.

"You figured he would at least tell you where he would be." England facepalmed as he put the box on the table, beside the paper bag. How was he supposed to deliver something, when he did not know the destination?

After some brain wrecking while thinking of the places America would be, England gave up and decided to just go home first. That idiot can go on without lunch for one day. As he was putting THE burger into the paper bag, something caught his attention. A few pieces of napkin that came with the box were resting at the very bottom of the bag. There was nothing special about them, but England picked them up anyway and started unfolding them one by one.

"That's weird. I don't remember the napkin having words printed on them…" When he was at his third piece, England noticed a small line of words printed at the right bottom of the napkin. Straining his eyes, he read: "Coffee, or tea?"

"Huh? Did they start advertising on napkins as well?" Scratching his head confusedly, England muttered to himself. "Won't this be more appropriate for shops that actually sells coffee and tea? Like Starbucks or something…" England's voice trailed off as a sense of realization struck him. Stuffing the napkins back into the paper bag, England grabbed the paper bag and managed his way out of the restaurant, heading for that one place where he would always drop by for tea.

"Welcome sir. What would it be today?" The girl at the counter greeted with a warm smile as England pushed the glass door open and entered the shop, immediately greeted by the air filled with a mixture of tea and coffee.

"The normal please. Oh and… Get me a cup of coffee that other person always orders." England smiled back and answered.

"Alright." The girl nodded and pressed two buttons on her rows of number on the counter desk, followed by some rustling in the kitchen behind the counter. In a few minutes, a ring was heard, and two cups of drinks were passed to the girl from the small window that connected the kitchen and the counter.

"Here you go, two takeaways." The girl placed the two drinks in the special holder and handed them to England.

"Thanks. How did you know I wanted takeaways?" England decided that there were too many strange things happening today and he should just go with the flow. Talking out his wallet, he gave the girl a $10 note.

"Well that paper bag you were carrying gave me some clues." The girl pointed to the bag in England's left hand and replied. "Do keep your money, this one is free."

"Is it alright?" Sure she was being nice, but he would not want to get her in trouble with her boss.

"Oh sure. You are a regular customer." She winked. "Nice weather today, isn't it? You should get going. Roses won't be red and blooming forever."

England nodded, thanked her for the free drinks, and walked out of Starbucks. For some reason, something felt weird. Was it what the girl said? It was quite a sunny day, so that would explain the good weather. But what did she mean by the rose talk? Why did it sound so familiar? It was as if someone had said this before.

… Roses…

…

England headed to the only French restaurant in that area.

"Alright, now what?" England felt the tip of his opened mouth twitch as he stood in front of the French restaurant, which was closed. "This is just ridiculous yet so much like that frog. Why would any shop close on such short notice, and the best reason the shop owner could come up with, was that he ran out of wine?" He scoffed angrily, the only expression he had for all day, besides being completely confused and blank.

While he was still cursing at the notice stuck on the door of the restaurant, a person wearing sunglasses, a black hat which covered half of his face and a long black cloak that covered everything else walked accidentally bumped into England. After a brief sorry, the person scurried off, not noticing that he dropped his envelop.

"Hey! You drop something…" England picked the envelope up and was about to return it to the person, when he found no one there. "…Huh… I guess you don't need it." England did not know which was weirder. The fact that the person was wearing a cloak on such a hot day, or the person owning a ponytail…

"Well, I have to return this to someone." England took a closer look at the address written on the envelope, and was surprised to see 'Arthur Kirkland' Written on the front. "Huh? It's for me?" That's weird. People would normally address him as 'England'… Wait, since when was the last time he received a letter not from his boss? Since it was his, he figured he had every right of opening it, so he did.

In it were some cards of different colours. Each card had one word written on it, and each word was written in a different handwriting. Well how nice, what's going to be next? A cross word puzzle? Putting the complaining aside, England laid the cards out on the deserted pavement and read the words out one by one: "Panda, Romance, Awesome, Kolkolkol …?" Well that did not make any sense. This can't be a sentence no matter how you look at it. But now England knew who to beat up later for all these nonsense.

"Hmm… What if I put it like this, and change the layout…" England muttered as he shifted the cards around, and after a few minutes, smiled contently. Holding a bag of THE burger in one hand and two cups of drinks in the other, England rushed down the path, to where the next destination was.