Author's Note: This is one of my first fanfics, so please forgive me for making any mistakes while I learn to use the site. Please note that none of the characters (exlcuding the new nation) are mine. Thanks a million for visiting my story. I hope you enjoy it!

Update: also, the new nation is not Surtsey, although Surtsey is briefly mentioned once or twice. Just wanted to clear up some confusion. :)

"So there I was, just me on a tiny long-boat, in the middle of this storm where the waves were literally taller than this house," Denmark said enthusiastically, stretching one hand up for emphasis. "And then BOOM!" Iceland jumped. "The boat capsized."

"Mmhmm," Iceland mumbled, not really paying attention to Denmark's viking story. He had almost gotten to sleep that time, too. Sleep. That was all he wanted. When he fell asleep, he could happily forget that he felt like crap. There was a lot of volcanic activity occurring in Iceland, and it was not doing good things for his health. Of course, he was no stranger to volcanic eruptions. It meant weeks of fevers, chills, coughing, and pain, not to mention the dozens of nations that came complaining to him about how the ash was giving them problems. But this? This was something he would have never thought possible. He knew he was a young nation compared to many of the others, but even they had seen nothing like this. The fault lines were exploding! Iceland was pretty much bedridden most days these past two weeks, as were some other nations located along the fault lines, even the ones who normally didn't have any volcanic activity.

Most of it seemed to be centered in Iceland, or more precisely the ocean surrounding Iceland though. If the oceans had secret personifications like the nations did, he felt bad for them. Seeing as that just singular volcanoes had taken a hit at Iceland's health in the past, the Nordic's unanimously decided that they needed to help Iceland with-how many volcanoes were going off? They had lost track. Except the nordics weren't exactly helping… at all.

"Stop waking him up," Norway said blatantly from where he sat reading by the window, although he didn't even look up at the two. Denmark, realizing he didn't have a tie on for Norway to strangle him with, decided it was safe to continue talking.

"Naw, Icey loves hearing about the good 'ol viking days, don't you Ice?" Iceland just groaned and pulled the covers over his head.

"Told you," Norway said.

Denmark disregarded the comment and continued talking. "So I was stuck swimming in the middle of the ocean-" He was suddenly interrupted yet again by Sweden clearing his throat. Even without taking his head out from under the covers, Iceland could practically see the glare Denmark was receiving, telling him to leave. He heard a sigh and the wooden floorboards creak as Denmark gave in and left.

Thank you, Iceland thought to himself. Before, he'd felt so awkward with the four other nordics just watching him as he tried to fall asleep. At this point though, he was past caring. He closed his eyes and let himself fall asleep.

"Iceland!" Iceland awoke with a start, gasping, looking up at four sets of worried eyes. Even Denmark's eyes had lost their mischievous gleam.

"What's wrong?" he asked, then winced. His throat burned.

"What's wrong? Just look at you." Norway said, a rare hint of concern tinging his words...or was that fear.

Iceland sat up slowly- with the help of Finland and Sweden, and tried standing up.

"What do you think you're doing?" Norway asked, his voice halfway between condescending and completely monotone.

Iceland tried speaking again, but his voice got caught in his throat. He just motioned towards the mirror.

Norway shook his head. "Stay there." He went over and turned it so that Iceland could see himself. He cringed. Aside from his cheeks and eyes, which looked more like burning coals than flesh, he was stark white. That was only accented by his silvery hair, which was now plastered to his face with sweat.

Iceland just groaned at flopped back down onto the pillows.

"Why'd ya wake me up?" Iceland managed to cough.

"We were worried about you," Finland said, trying not to panic.

" 'Y took a t'rn f'r the w'rst," Sweden said, glaring at Iceland with a look that only the other nordics would recognize as concern.

"I'm fi-" Iceland's sentence dissolved into a fit of coughing in which Denmark ran over to help Iceland sit up. Iceland made a note to immediately forgive him for all of his stupid viking stories.

Norway came over and laid a hand on Iceland's forehead. Iceland closed his eyes, enjoying the coldness of his hand in the split second before Norway snapped his hand back, shaking it for a moment as if in pain.

"Geez. You're burning lillebror."

"Obviously," Iceland muttered under his breath, wriggling free of Denmarks hold and back underneath the blankets, which were immediately ripped off of him by one of the nordics. He didn't bother looking to see which one.

" 'Y need 't cool off." Sweden. It was sweden.

"But it's cold without them!"

"Sorry Iceland," Finland chirped genuinely, giving him an apologetic smile. Iceland sighed, closing his eyes. It was hard to stay mad at someone like Finland. Took too much energy too.

" 'll go g't s'm m'dcine," Sweden muttered, heading downstairs to rumage around until he found something that would help.

" Can we turn the news on?" Iceland mumbled, already trying to fall back into the blissful land of ignorant sleep. Half the TV stations were covering this freakish volcanic activity. Hopefully they could give him some insight as to what was going on and more importantly when it would END!

"Sure thing Ice," Denmark chimed, reverting back to his old self, setting off towards the TV down the hall and leaving Iceland with Norway and Finland.

"Need anything else?" Finland asked smiling, not one-hundred percent sure what to do with himself. Iceland grunted in response.

"Means no," Norway said in answer to Finland's befuddled expression.

"Oh. Okay."

Iceland sighed, thankful for the long overdue silence, and closed his eyes. Finally.

"Hey Ice!" Denmark hollered from down the hall. He groaned inwardly and didn't even have to look to know that Norway was shooting a glare down the hall. "TV is all the way down here! Want me to move it into your room?"

"Agh. Forget it." He leaned over and switched on the radio on the alarm clock instead, but he was asleep again before the announcer even got five words out.

"Iceland! C'mon bro! Ya gotta get up!" Denmark. Iceland blinked and pulled himself into a sitting position.

"This again?" he groaned drowsily.

"Iceland?" Norway asked. Iceland stared up at him in shock. His voice, his face, everything about him was saturated with worry.

"What?" Iceland bolted up, ignoring his complaining muscles.

"You're okay?" Norway asked.

Iceland nodded. He was fine...well….as fine as he could be with the recent events. "Why? What happened?" All of the nordics surrounding him looked away. Norway glancing to a spot slightly above his head, Denmark looking utterly stressed out (which sounded like an oxymoron to Iceland), Sweden suddenly finding his boots really interesting, and Finland staring out the increasingly ash-stained air outside the window. "Guys. C'mon. What- what happened."

" 'S w'ts gonna h'ppen," Sweden said, not removing his eyes from his shoes. Iceland raised an eyebrow.

"Honestly guys, I'm feeling a little bit better. I think I can actually get up," Iceland said, swinging his feet over the side of the bed so that he could stand.

"Oh no you don't," Norway scolded, and several pairs of hands reached out to push him back down.

"What's going on?" Iceland asked again, pretty irritated at this point if he were to be honest with himself. Sure, the nordics were a fairly tight-knit family, but they had never been… motherly so to speak. Well, maybe he could picture Finland taking over the role of an overprotective parent with a sick kid, but Sweden and Norway had the same sort of nonchalant attitude that didn't fit with what he was seeing now (even if Norway did make a fuss over the whole big brother deal) Denmark was too rambunctious to be pictured as the caretaker type.

"Ah...not sure how to break this to you Iceland," Finland said, laughing humorlessly and running a hand through his hair- both nervous habits of his. He looked around for help from his fellow nordics.

Denmark to the rescue. " The news people-"

"Anchors?" Norway interjected, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah whatever, well they said that all indications point to some major volcanic and tectonic plate activity any time now."

Iceland stifled a laugh. "What's new?" This had been going on for weeks now. Tell him something he didn't know.

" Icel'nd, 's gonna be bad," Sweden said, finally making eye contact. Iceland was shocked. This might be the first time Sweden wasn't wearing his typical unchanging stern face. He looked...sad. No, that wasn't the word. He looked like he was pitying Iceland. Pity. The word turned sour in Iceland's mind. He couldn't deny that he had depended on and needed the Nordics these past few weeks, but he didn't want to be the source of pity now… or ever really. And yet...the nordics' reactions...Sweden displaying emotion visibly?Now that scared him.

"How bad?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at them.

"Ah," Denmark ran a hand through his own hair, making his hat fall off-center and his hair stick up even more, if that was even possible. "It'll be, and I quote 'twenty-one times more powerful than anything else in recorded history'"

Iceland closed his eyes and leaned back against the headboard, disregarding the angle it bent his neck to.

"Really?"

"Really."

"This isn't some mean joke?"

"Sorry Ice."

Then an even more horrifying thought occurred to Iceland. "Norway?"

"Yes?"

"This...whatever it is...it isn't going to you know...kill me is it?"

Norway's eyes widened at his words. "No...it- it shouldn't at least...gosh you're too young for this."

Iceland didn't think he was supposed to hear the last part. "Shouldn't?" he laughed, although he found no humor in his words. All he could picture was solid Icelandic ground cracking into plates and drifting apart. "I was looking for something a little more solid than tha- GAH!"

Iceland curled up into a ball. Something was stabbing him, carving it's way through him from the inside out. He couldn't even pinpoint where, it was everywhere. He was either burning or freezing to death- he couldn't tell which one, but it was certainly one of the two extremes...or both maybe. Did it even matter? What was happening? No volcanic eruption could be this bad. It wasn't possible, it couldn't be. He had his eyes squeezed shut, unwilling to open them for all eternity. Even if he did- he knew he wouldn't be able to see anything. Colors- little flecks and splatters of red and black and green exploded behind his eyelids, and something similar was happening in his head. That was, if his brain wasn't liquid already. Only the most generous soul could call this a migraine. He was sure he was screaming right now- how could he not be? He couldn't hear anything though- only muffled 'Icelands' from the nordics who may as well be a million worlds apart.

And then finally, blissful unconsciousness swallowed all of the pain.

" 'S b'n talk'ng 'n 'is sleep 'n mov'ng around a lot." This was the first sentence Iceland was able to make any sense of. Everything else sounded like jumbled up gibberish.

"Iceland?" Can you hear me?" called Finlands voice, a couple feet away by the sound of it.

Iceland grunted in response. He didn't have the energy to get up yet, which didn't really make sense since, judging by the soreness of his muscles, he had been asleep for quite a while.

"Hey guys, he's up," Finland called quietly to the others. Several pairs of footsteps padded over.

"Iceland?" That voice definitely belonged to Norway. "You think you can open your eyes yet?"

Iceland blinked, the Nordics slowly coming into focus. They were all looking down on him with worried expressions. At least they had the sense to keep him in his own house and not bring him to the hospital. There was nothing they could have done at the hospital anyway.

"Yeah?" he replied in a scratchy voice. He cleared his throat.

A huge grin broke across Denmark's face. "He lives!" he said in a joking voice. Norway shoved him so that he stumbled back a few steps. Nobody needed a reminder that this could have been a close call for Iceland.

Norway sat down by Iceland's feet. "How are you feeling?"

Iceland pushed himself up and sat cross-legged on the bed. It actually didn't take as much energy as he thought. "Actually, pretty okay." He felt better than he had since this whole fiasco started. He flexed his muscles, testing them. Sure, they were a little sore, but that was to be expected. His people were still recovering from the effects of the volcanoes themselves. "Is it over?"

Norway smirked slightly. "For the most part. There are still some aftershocks to come, but they're not too bad."

"Okay." He released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Okay...What was that?"

Norway's ghost of a grin morphed into a rare full-blown smile.

"A few hundred miles off your southern coast, a new island popped up."

Iceland sat there gaping for a moment. "A- what?"

"An island."

"But-I-that should have taken millions of years to happen. I didn't even know the fault lines-" Iceland sputtered. By all accounts, this should be impossible. Surtsey was an exception, but even Surtsey hadn't been quite so extreme. This was s

Denmark laughed. "There's a first time for everything."

"Still," Norway said, staring out at nothing in particular, "It's highly irregular…"

"That's an understatement," Iceland remarked under his breath.

"Aww, lighten up Norge, everyone's okay."

"Mph," Norway answered. He wasn't the type to give up on a question he was still curious about.

"So if this is some unrelated island, why was I affected"

" 'Twas close by. 'T set off the' icel'nd'c v'lc'noes."

"Oh," Iceland muttered, silently berating himself for not thinking of that obvious answer. Then again, he just woke up after being asleep for who knows how long. Days if he had to guess. It was a wonder he was even thinking this clearly.

"Joo. Even we felt that to some extent," Finland said, smiling of course.

"So, this island," what's up with it?" Iceland asked.

Norway shrugged. "Not much. It's a really small pile of volcanic rock and ash. It'll keep growing though. Iceland nodded. He wanted to see it.

It had been two weeks. The Nordics had insisted on staying with Iceland until he made a full recovery, which mind you, he had made about a week ago. He could take care of himself, and he let them know again and again and again. Nevertheless, they were still there, insisting that he still needed to rest. Whatever. Iceland had been cooped up in that house of his for a month and was slowly descending towards insanity. He needed to leave. It didn't matter that he had to sneak out of his own house at the crack of dawn, as long as he could leave. The local area, where he normally went to go food shopping, sounded unappealing. He needed to go somewhere else. He knew where. Norway might just kill him if found out...or have a heart attack, but he knew. It wasn't hard to find a ride over. It's not like Iceland had any shortage of fishing boats.

Norway wasn't kidding. It was a slab of volcanic rock with nothing on it. What exactly was he expecting though? This thing had just risen up from the depths of the upper mantle a few weeks ago. The air still smelled like flames and rotting eggs. If he were a human, he probably wouldn't even be able to come. The captain of the fishing boat had gotten as close as he could (with a hefty bribe Iceland might add), but wouldn't get too close. Iceland had to row the rest of the way. Well, at the very least, that was at least one thing Norway would have been proud of: rowing like a true viking… sort of… not that he cared. His white boots were soon deep in and covered with something. Ash? Wet ash? No, he couldn't tell, but it was definitely something.

The entire island was covered in whatever this stuff was and rock. It was small for an island. He could see every inch of the coast from no matter where he stood, but barely. He expected to see a volcano or something. The island was supposed to be like hawaii: growing via volcanic eruptions. But it was all flat. Most of this place was underwater though, so the volcano was probably there.

"Well," Iceland muttered to himself, taking one last glance around the new island, "this has been a waste of time." The stores next to his home may have ended up being more exciting after all. If he were to have any hope of getting home before the Nordics called the authorities, which was likely already being that Norway had grown steadily more overprotective of his little brother as the days went on, he should head back now. Iceland heaved a sigh, utterly disappointed, and started the short walk back to the little boat he had rowed from the fishing boat to the island. He probably should have just listened to the Nordics to begin with.

He suddenly gasped and tripped over something, face-planting in the ashy stuff. A muffled squeak-like cry emanated from the ground behind his feet.

"Wha-?" Iceland looked back at where he had tripped. The face of a small child had suddenly popped out of the soaking wet ash-material. What in the world-?

Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, Iceland thought desperately. Just when it looked like the child had settled down and granted Iceland his wish, he burst out in tears, wailing. Well this was just perfect, wasn't it?

Iceland scooped the child up in his arms, not quite sure how to hold him.

"Shh. Ahh...it's okay.." he said, awkwardly patting the child on the back. It did little to calm the kid down though. Iceland looked around frantically for the kid's parents, but the whole place was desolate. Of course it was, he had already been from coast to coast about three times now...but how on earth did this kid get- oh no. It- he...he couldn't be one of them, could he? What other explanation could there be? Iceland held the kid out in front of him and studied him, as if there would be a big sign reading 'NATION' scrawled across his forehead. The child opened his mouth to suck in another breath: fuel for it's screams, but ended up choking on the air, laden with debris. It started coughing then, opening it's eyes for the first time. They were violet spheres, gazing at Iceland intently. Well that settled it. Humans didn't have violet eyes.

Iceland looked around the island once more. Well it's not like he could leave the kid here, now could he? Just imagine how Norway would react though…

The trip back home gave Iceland his first chance to really get a good look at the kid. He was really little. He wasn't an infant, but was still younger than America was when Finland and Sweden first stumbled across him. He looked about old enough to crawl well, and possibly make failed attempts at walking, and also to speak, but only complete baby gibberish. Months old in how many days? Nations were weird. Any other details were hidden by a thick layer of wet ash that wouldn't come off no matter what Iceland did, although he was pretty sure that the kid's hair was blond. How could a slab of rock off of the Icelandic coast even have a personification? There were many tiny sandbar-like islands across the world without personifications. Then again, Sealand's existence proved to the world that almost anything could have a personification. Both Iceland and the kid were filthy by now: yet another thing to explain later. The wind nipped at his nose. He didn't mind much, but he made sure to tuck the child under his coat. The poor thing had probably been through enough without having pneumonia to top it all off.

Iceland slipped into his house, trying to avoid attention. He didn't know exactly what he was going to do. This wasn't the sort of thing that he could keep as a secret. But it could stay a secret for a few more hours, couldn't it?

"Where do you think you're going?" Iceland spun around, arms hiding the little kid who had fallen asleep underneath his coat.

"Upstairs." he said, a bit too fast. If Norway noticed, he didn't say anything.

"Is that ash all over your clothes? What on earth did you do?"

"I fell. There's a lot of ash on the ground right now. Do you-"

"You went to the island didn't you?"

How!? How did he know? "No." The kid suddenly blinked his eyes awake, cooing softly, still a bit drowsy.

"What was that?" Norway asked sharply. He didn't even give Iceland a chance to answer before walking over to a place where the new nation wasn't hidden from view and looking at the kid for himself.

"Iceland? Care to explain?" It wasn't a question.

"Look. I went to the island. It had a personification. I couldn't leave him there. Bye." he turned around and walked in the direction of the stairs without waiting for a reply.

"Then what?"

Iceland stopped. "What do you mean?"

"Well, what did you plan on doing? Raising him yourself?"

Iceland looked down at the drowsy kid in his arms. "I...I guess so-"

Norway shook his head. "Iceland. Let me or one of the other Nordics take care of him."

"Why?" Iceland narrowed his eyes. Was Norway implying that he wasn't able to.

"Iceland. You're seventeen."

Iceland made a sound in the back of his throat. "You were too, when you found me...more or less."

Norway waved off his comment as if it were irrelevant, which it was not.

"Iceland, you went through school centuries ago, yes, but you'll have to teach him and feed him. Other countries with strong military's will try to take him over."

Iceland narrowed his eyes. All of this was only making his resolve stronger. "I'll do it."

"Iceland, don't be hero. Don't do this just to prove a point. We don't see you as a little kid." This was probably the most Iceland had heard Norway talk in one day ever, but he didn't care much at that time. Iceland just looked at the little bundle in his arms. No. This was his little brother. He disregarded Norway's comment and continued upstairs.

"Iceland. Come back here," he called.

"No. I'm going to clean him up," he said, taking the child up to the bathroom. "We can talk later."

Norway studied the two of them for a minute. Iceland wasn't just doing this to spite the rest of them, was he? "Fine," he muttered. Iceland raised his eyebrows. "Fine. But this is our little brother too now," Norway continued, speaking for the rest of the Nordics. "Don't expect us to stay out of this." Aka: We'll be watching you. He still wasn't completely convinced.

Iceland just nodded and went to go clean the ash off of the new nation, all the while thinking 'What did I just get myself into.'

Author's Note: I hope you liked chapter one! Chapter two will hopefully be updated within the week. Reviews are very much appreciated, as is criticism so long as it is constructive. Thanks again!