As nations, certain subjects are hard to discuss. Everyone has their own sore points when you live for hundreds or thousands of years.

That's why the world meeting to discuss what to do about the spreading of a virus, the panic of what could become an epidemic and how to prevent it, went down as one of the worst ever conducted.

It had started off tame; no one wanted to make fun of such a touchy subject that could turn out to be very serious. Biological disasters like the spread of a disease is not something a nation wants to experience and the meeting was rather professional because of it, even if a few arguments broke out.

It all went downhill however when Sealand (who was permitted into the meeting under strict orders to behave) yelled out "Hey look! A rat!" interrupting America who was presenting as everyone turned to look at where Sealand was pointing.

A black rat had snuck out from behind some filing cabinets scurrying along the skirting boards- some countries laughed quietly, others murmured about how on earth it got in- and made its way towards the end of the room where the European nations were. It was only when Italy screamed clutching onto his brother that the rest of the world realised that something was wrong.

France had gone white, his usual bright perfect look turned deathly pale. England was stock still in his chair with eyes wide with fear, pupils dilated and hands gripping the table so tight his knuckles had gone white.

Spain was curled up murmuring something about church bells with Romano clutching one of his arms and burying his face into Antonio's chest, his brother still screaming and clinging onto his back.

The Scandinavian countries were sitting closer together in a tight huddle, Norway babbling something about 'Pesta'.

Greece had woken up from his sleep and was speaking so fast that the people next to him had trouble understanding what he was saying other that it was something about cats, too surprised with how quickly the usually slow speaking country was talking and how awake and alert he was.

The Baltics had jumped apart trying to get away from anyone near them, looking scared of each other.

Hungary was crying.

Austria and Switzerland frozen in their chairs.

Even Gilbert, there with his brother, had turned even paler. Looking corpse like with his already pale skin, red eyes dull.

Other European countries were in similar states of panic and shock. Even Russia looked somewhat affected by the distress of everyone on his continent.

The rest of the world looked on in shock as a whole continent panicked before a group of nations sprang up and chased the rat out, others hurrying over to affected countries trying to calm them down and bring them out of shock.

It took a few hours for everyone to calm down and to get some of the affected nations to sit back in their chairs next to other seemed they were scared to be anywhere near others and shied away from them with terrified eyes.

When asked to explain what happened, England shakily stood up from his seat. Still looking pale and eyes a dulled green he spoke with a monotone voice:

'Ring around the rosies,

Pockets full of posies,

Ashes, ashes:

We all fall down.'

AN:

This is based on the bubonic plague/black death that spread throughout the whole of Europe. It originally started in China and spread via black rats carrying infected fleas on merchant ships. The Black Death is said to be one of most devastating pandemics in human history and it decimated Europe's population; killing an estimated 30–60 percent of Europe's population at the time. It even took over 100+ years for Europe's population to recover. That's a very long time.

Norway muttering something about 'Pesta' is something I found out while searching DeviantArt and stumbled across a piece of art of Norway and the bubonic plague. It's apparently Norwegian folklore. During those times people had come up with a personification of the Black Death, portraying her as an old woman with sickly greyish skin, clad in black and carrying a broom and a rake. Her name is derived from the word "pest" which means "plague". I don't know if it's true but I was intrigued by this.

There are many variations of the 'Ring around the rosies' rhyme. The one I used has the words 'ashes' in to describe the burning of corpses and the ash that fell because of that. Don't we have such gruesome nursery rhymes?

I wanted to do a 'Trigger' series since I did the small drabble of America and England having a flashback to the Revolutionary War at the same time due to America pointing his hand at England in a mock shoot. So I'll most likely do more stories of countries being affected by flashbacks of sorts. If anyone wants to give me any ideas for a trigger I could see what I can do.

Long authors note is long :)