Planetalia

Chapter 2

As Ludwig trudged back into the main room, Alfred dangling helplessly off of him, he announced what had happened to the system to the other planets. Lovino started cursing loudly, Arthur and Francis began to blame each other for the catastrophe, Kiku stared at the tilted planet - shocked by what he was hearing, Matthew looked to his boss, and Feliciano sat in a corner, nervously gobbling down a bowl of pasta.

There was only planet left who was smiling.

Ivan, representative of Jupiter. His planet was the largest, and easily the scariest. He was rumored to have more than sixty four secretaries - rather, moon representatives, among them Raivis Galante - representative of Io, Eduard von Bock - representative of Callisto, and Toris Lorinaitis - representative of Europa. He was rather intimidating, often using his size to bully around asteroids and comets such as the two who glanced between each other worriedly from across the table.

Just as there was only one planet not intimidated by the sabotauge of the celestial plates, one little 'planet' was brave enough to stand up to him.

Peter Kirkland, representative of the dwarf planet of Pluto.

"You know, if we would just assert ourselves more, we'd be able to scare people from ever messing with us," Ivan said, picking himself up from the table and starting to pace slowly. "Hmm... Perhaps we should blow up a few more asteroids?"

"We're not doing that," Ludwig sighed, "the fact of the matter is that we're stuck here in the center of the solar system, and we can't step outside for obvious-"

"We'd get burned~!" Feliciano wailed, hugging Kiku, who squealed and shoved away from the other planet.

"I'd contact the representative of the Sun, but...," Ludwig trailed off. "Well, he - er, she - hasn't been around lately." Who the tilted planet was referring to was Wang Yao, who represented the star in the center of their universe. "I would think that being trapped here together is quite romantic," said Francis, taking one of Feliciano's roses and inhaling the scent that wafted from it. "However, considering that poorly crafted blue beast with the clouds is with us..."

"Oh? Are you insulting my clouds now?" Arthur challenged. "I'll bet you're just jealous, you unsightly, orange pile of gravel."

"What did you just call me?!" Francis snarled. "You little gas freak!"

"Sulfur face!"

"Shadow of Uranus!"

"Everyone, shut up!" Ludwig shouted. "Venus, Neptune, stop fighting! This is a serious matter!" Arthur snorted, then stalked back to Alfred, who he wished was a gas giant like him, and not a terrestrial planet like Francis. Then again, he mused, they were all planets.

"I have a plan!"

The small voice was finally heard, and the planets turned to Peter, who had been trying to be heard for more than a few minutes. The small representative of Pluto was nothing to fear, and when you weren't something to fear in their world, you were something to ignore. But considering the circumstances, the eight planets and the comets in the room turned to the dwarf planet. Suprised to get all of the attention at once, Peter fell silent.

"Come on, little brat, spill it," Lovino pressed, sitting down beside his brother. "What is it?"

"I... uh...," Peter stuttered, stepping back. "Well, for... for starters..."

"He doesn't have anything, Mars, don't waste your time," Arthur sighed, placing his head in his hands as he leaned over the table. "Frankly, I'm wondering just how it is that the little guy got in here. I thought we disabled Pluto's plate the moment we decided against having dwarf planets give us their complaints."

"Do you think, perhaps...," Alfred started, before jabbing a finger at the dwarf planet. "Maybe he's the culprit?!"

"What? No!" Peter cried. "I would never! I'm a fellow planet - we don't hurt each other!"

"Ohohon~," Francis started, "as a matter of fact, dear Pluto, violence is a big part of being a planet. In fact, it's part of love in general. And I'm afraid that you just landed a spot at the top of my punch list, ohohohohon~."

"Peter is above Arthur now?" Kiku whispered. "That is quite a big leap..."

"Why is it that you're never on anyone's punch list?" Arthur growled to the ringed planet. Kiku gave a small blush, and shrugged.

"It's because Saturn doesn't go around pestering people," Ludwig sighed. "Anyway, until the Sun gets back, we're stuck here. We'll send Wang Yao out to get help as soon as we see him - er, her. In the mean time, let's get along!"

"Yay~!" Feliciano cheered, before blushing as he realized that he was the only one doing so. "What? I'm just supporting Uranny!" The other planets gave a collective sigh.

This was going be a long wait.

Halley's Comet was sitting beside his brother, Shoemaker-Levy 9, waiting quietly for Feliciano to come out of the small kitchen with food for them. All of the other planet representatives had already been fed, because comets and asteroids were naturally last. They didn't mind; after all, Feliciano was quite nice about it.

Earth soon returned, and the two comets quietly thanked him as they took a plate of pasta each. "Eat up, now, it's the best food in the world~," Feliciano said, before walking over to Ludwig. Neither of the two comets missed the small touch that Ludwig delivered around the terrestrial planet's waist before he sat down.

Alfred sat at the table, Arthur to his right, and a disgruntled Francis to his left. He was feeling paranoid, like he was being watched, but it didn't take a star to figure out it was just Arthur. The blue planet was staring at him, in fact, a faint smile on his face, as if remembering a fond memory. It creeped the hell out of the terrestrial planet, but he decided against voicing so. He instead settled for thinking up how he would become the hero in this situation. It didn't seem likely.

Ivan and Lovino were sitting next to each other, caught up in the most awkward silence that had ever crossed two planets that were right next to each other normally. How Lovino loathed his moons for not being there when he needed them. Especially that Phobos. Lovino thought, 'Wasn't he being all nice and crap yesterday? Where the hell is he now?' And Ivan could care less about the three moons, Io, Europa and Callisto, who stood in the corner, nervously talking to each other. He was just glad that his self pronounced sister, Ganymede, hadn't been able to come along. If she was here, then Ivan himself would be scared.

Francis gazed longingly out the ceiling window, frowning when he noted that a solar flare was covering his view of the beautiful universe. He still didn't get why they had to have the damn meeting in the middle of their solar system. If the point was to make them not walk a huge distance, they should've all met up at Ivan's, or at the asteroid belt! And... they weren't walking anyway, so what was the bloody point to coming to the sun? They could just as well meet up on any damn planet! It wasn't that Francis didn't like the Sun or anything, it was just that he was always hot. All the time, his planet had a hot temperature. Day or night. It was exhausting. When was he ever going to get a break to cool off, anyway?

Ludwig twiddled his thumbs and groaned, immensely bored. Feliciano was talking his ear off as he ranted about Earth's history, and everywhere he tried to focus, all he could only come back to that annoying voice in his head. It wasn't at all that he found Feliciano annoying, it was just his voice. It wasn't even opinion. Earth was so unfortunate as to be born with a voice that had the same affect as nails against a blackboard. Finally, Ludwig had had enough. He put his hand up, silencing the terrestrial planet, before he said, softly, "How about some quiet time, Feli?"

"Oh, sure thing, Ludwig! I love to play the quiet game, but for some reason I always seem to lose. But I won't lose this time; I'm gonna do my best and you just see; I'll beat you! And then, I'll have finally won the quiet-"

"Feli," Ludwig pressed.

"Oh! Right, right, sorry!" Feliciano laughed, before quieting himself. Less than a minute later, he had started talking again.

All in all, the planets were getting along just fine, with the occasional bicker between Francis and Arthur. It seemed as though fear would always be the one to unite them. Either that, or Kiku's calmness rubbed off on them. Anyway, things were peaceful...

At least for now.

-End Chapter

A/N: Phoenix here! I wrote this chapter, and SBB edited, if you haven't already guessed. Now, the lack of reviews for the last chapter kind of irked me. We can do better here, right? Start reviewing, everyone! :D

A/N: Hey again guys. It's SBB... Well, I'll admit, I was kind of disappointed at the reviews for the last chapter. Well, not too much since the most reviews for one thing was two reviews. XD Well, please review and I hope I can entertain you in the third chapter. And do you people not like wurst or something? Well, then review for ONIGIRIS! [Rice balls]