Back inside Finland's place, the rest of the Nordics stood mystified.

"So…what the hell was that?" Denmark said, breaking the ice with a hint of scoff woven into his words.

Norway glared at the Dane, causing his smirk to fall to a flat line of uneasiness.

"H-hey it's not like you weren't wondering!" the Dane said.

"I'm…not sure what that was either." Finland replied, his head tilting slightly. The Finn looked down uneasily down at the plastic instrument, as if it had something to do with the other nation's outburst.

Sweden gently placed his palm on Finland's shoulder comfortingly. "Something else did it," Sweden said.

Sighing, Norway cast a glance outside. The world beyond the windowpane stood still and serene. Small flakes of snow began advancing from above. There was no need for any unnatural light to point out the snowflakes from the dark night, because the moon's soothing glow lit up the blanketed surface of the earth, exposing everything.

The Norwegian turned back around to face the others in the living room, an eerily calm expression on his face. "I'm going to find my brother. You guys can follow me in about a half an hour, but I think it's better if I headed off to see him by myself, first. You know, for reasons."

"Why can't we come along?" Denmark asked, his voice almost a bark. "We-"

"Danmark." Sweden warned – voice low – while looking at the Dane from the corner of his eyes.

Denmark's mouth shut into a pout, and he cast a glance at the wall in the opposite direction of everyone else. Why did Norge even have to go by himself, anyways? He could at least bring him along, right? Ice, Norge, and him were like family…right?

"I think that's a good idea, Norway," Finland chirped. "You can go on ahead, and we'll come after we've packed some things."

The Norwegian nodded and rose from his comfortable couch cushion. He started for the door when Sweden muttered a simple sentence; "It's cold,"

"He's right, Norway. You should grab a thicker coat from my closet." Finland urged. "We don't want you to freeze until we come to meet you both."

"Alright," Norway walked down the hall to the foyer. He slipped on a layered winter jacket from Finland's collection of coats. Since the temperature outside was definitely colder than it had been when the Norwegian had arrived, he decided to barrow some gloves, earmuffs, and a scarf from the Finn. He popped the collar of the coat and zipped it up to him collar bone. Then, he wound the woolen scarf around his neck, fitted the gloves to his hands, situated the earmuffs comfortably on his head, and then finished zipping the jacket up to his chin.

When the bundling-up process was finished, he pulled down the door handle and walked out onto the snow covered land. A cool breeze played at his cheeks, so Norway fished the top of the scarf from under the popped collar and dragged it up to his nose. Much better. The Norwegian looked about the area, trying to find some way of tracking his brother. His pale eyes rapidly found some imprints leading away from the house, obviously Iceland's. Letting his hands rest in the jacket pockets, Norway set off on the trail laid out before him.

The moon had begun to play hide and seek behind the clouds, causing darkness to come and go. In some areas of the vast plain above, there were dark blotches among the stars; clouds were rolling in, blocking out starlight, and leaving ominous, grey shadows along the earth.

"I should have brought a flashlight," Norway mumbled to himself, peering up at the black sky.

The hills of white seemed to go on forever, but Norway kept to the path of the footprints to his side. Soon, the trail led him up a huge mound of snow. As he hiked up, spurts of warm breath came from his nostrils and diminished into the air. About halfway up the hill, Norway saw the top of someone's head. They appeared to be sitting, and their white hair was almost as pale as the snow.

"There you are." Norway said, boots crushing the snow to get to the smaller figure sitting on the hill.

Iceland's back faced Norway, but he looked up at him when he grew near. His knees were tucked into his chest, and his own boots had kicked some of the white snow blanket forward into two wrinkly piles. His arms overlapped to rope his knees, and his chin resided on his coated forearms. Iceland stayed silent as his older brother kneeled in the snow next to him.

"Hey," Norway said, looking at Iceland after a moment of silence had passed.

"Hey…" Iceland responded, having turned away and setting his eyes on the horizon.

"…So you want to start with explaining what all that was?" Norway asked, eyes resting on his younger brother's face.

The other nation simply shrugged. Another minute of silence passed.

"Should I just assume that the Dane was right? Because that's a bit of an extreme reaction for being ticklish." Norway said.

"Nah…it's not that. I just…" Iceland laid his right cheek down on his arms so he could see his brother. "It's a bit hard to explain I guess. I'm just trying to clear my mind, is all. Things have been bugging me lately."

"Obviously," Norway remarked.

Iceland frowned.

"Sorry," Norway said. "What's been bothering you?"

"I don't know if I should tell you, now. It's kind of a touchy subject for me." Iceland huffed.

"You've been acting strangely, and I think it would be best for you to tell me. I'm your big brother, you can tell me anything."

Iceland raised a brow at the other Nordic. "Well, you did raise me, I suppose. But just because I'm…just because I'm going to tell you this doesn't mean that you're my brother, got it?"

Norway nodded, and Iceland bit his lip. Was this really the right thing to do? Iceland cupped his face with his palms, breathing out agitatedly. Out of all of them, he could tell Norway, and…he'd been wanting to talk to someone about it for a long time. It almost pained him to not have told anyone. This was definitely the right thing to do.

"Let's see…" the younger nation inhaled, and then sighed. "You know how everyone always assumed you and Denmark had a thing?"

Norway nodded again, but didn't deny the assumption.

"It's kind of like that…" Iceland replied. "But with no one in particular."

(( AN: Sorry for such a late update! I've been preoccupied lately, but I had some time today and decided to post. The next chapter will be better. ))