We come home to a ginormous crowd of cheering people. All rooting to see what we discovered or to hear any awesome stories we have to tell about the unknown land. Even the other nations like France, England, and their children had come to see the newest world wonder. We casually walk past all my citizens, Muscovy hidden in my basket -he's so small-, and let them gape at our proud backs. But, they follow, regardless of how anxious I'm sure each and every one of them are. We walk for a while and end up at a large fountain. I set down my basket offhandedly and watch with my peripheral vision all their stunned faces. I almost fear that someone is going to faint from holding their breath in so long. I guess this suspense really will kill them. Alright, enough mind games: I dramatically lift up the woven lid to my sturdy basket that held one of my newest, and most precious, treasures so far.

Little Ivan peeks his blond head out of the basket. Some people gasp while others have yet remembered how to speak. The miniature nation scurried back into the basket, he must be afraid of seeing so many people. I bet his home was quite and isolated place from the rest of humanity- I'll be sure to change that. I am a tad baffled to see the Europeans' child, America if I'm correct, walk up to the basket. Holding a toy soldier tightly in his opposite hand, he nervously lifts the lid of Ivan's container. As the cover lifts so does Muscovy's little head. America brings up the cap until his ocean blue eyes meet with Muscovy's lilac purple ones. They stay like that fo a while, staring into each others' eyes; it's quite amusing really. Ivan was the first to move, which surprised me, he lifted his young hand and, with childish amusement, flicked America's stubborn cowlick. The brighter blond giggled and poked his new friend's nose. Who made an equally excited laugh. It looks like the newer nation gathered up all his courage and climbed out of the basket with little trouble.

My heart began to break for the boy when the people gasped at his shape. He just stared at them in confusion that you could only aquire from a lad. He ignored the foreign signs ( the gasps ) and went back to playing with his new companion- who was completely oblivious to his other's fittness. Watching the children play together must've made a change in what my people thought for one-by-one people began to cautiosly step towards the playful pair. A tailor, by the looks of his attire, is the second to touch Ivan. Though his hand is shaky, it put a firm grip on Muscovy's little shoulder. I smiled seeing how people were getting used to my new treasure already.

A few hours passed and Ivan practically learned everyone's feel. This made me chuckle slightly. I check the sun and see its began its way to sleep- so should we. I tell my people, in Ancient Chinese, to go to rest and that they may see Muscovy tomorrow after breakfast. They all eagerly agree and I lift Ivan onto my back, he smiled at me as he rests his small head on my shoulder.

"They're all really nice to me."

"Mm-hm." I nod then the little boy continues, "It's just like in the stories."

I can practically hear the smile in his tired, innocent voice. We walk home in silence, him sleeping restfully on my back. Today was a good day. Tomorrow... we'll explore!

--

I awaken to the faint sound of someone calling my name. I wonder what happened yesterday- I'm still half-asleep. Well, I was half-asleep until a child jumped onto me. Then I remembered everything.

"Wake-y, Wake-y! C'mon Yao, 'S time to get up, da!" He sounds so enthusiastic as he jumps furiously on my bed. With a grumble, I open up my khaki brown eyes to meet Muscovy's lilac-purple. He was smiling widely down at me, most likely happy that he finally got me awake. He gets on his knees and crawls towards me. It must be a struggle for him to walk in all those clothes- was he really that cold? The albino pokes at me a few times in the shoulder; most likely attempts to wake me up fully. He then, unexpectedly, grabbed my cheek and began shaking it till it hurt like hell. "Q-Quit it, aru!" I half expect him to cry from me yelling at him but instead he just stares at me curiously- I've noted that he has that expression on often. But, hey, who wouldn't when you come to a whole different 'world'. He smiles with a perfect curve and asks me kindly, "Why do you say 'aru'?" I chuckle to myself at the question. Not many people ask me that question and it's always so weird feeling when I answer it. The answer is weird all on it's own!

"It means 'is', aru." I tell him plainly as I set myself into a sitting position on my bed. He crawls into my lap and looks up at me, another welcoming smile on his young face. He giggles some, making his soft hair bounce, and replies, "So you just said 'It means is, is.' right?" He chuckled and I guess it does sound funny once you think about it. I let a grin sneak itself onto my features as I gently push the still feather-light boy off my lap. It's about time for breakfast and I'm starving. Muscovy runs up behind me and takes my open hand, holding on tightly. Somewhat unnecessarily tight I think with a mental frown. I look down to him and see he has a normal expression on- though, yes, it's not his cheeky one it's quite a normal expression. I walk him through the house calmly, him looking everywhere with his small hand still in mine. We finally reach the kitchen and I make him let go of my hand politely. He got up on a chair and quietly waited for me to bring him breakfast, I guess. What a polite child- from seeing the European twins you would look down on kids, like I once did. But, not all kids are raised by horrible parents.

Except I found Ivan alone in a cave- wouldn't that mean he was raised by no parents at all? Correct? But he has me now, so everything is going to be ohkay.

Muscovy tugs at my sleeve. He points to his mouth, in his own childish way he was telling me he was hungry. I guess I was spacing out. I take out a few rice-balls from my icebox* that Alfred invented. It turned out to be quite handy. The bite sized foods were at an acceptable temperature so we walk towards my table. He sits silently across from me and waits for his food. I wonder what he's thinking about. I set a plate of five rice cakes in front of him and the same amount in front of me. I take the first food into my mouth, why hasn't Muscovy touched his breakfast?

"Muscovy," He flinchs and looks up at me. It's quite hard to read his expressions, "why haven't you eaten your food?"

" 'Cause I don't know what it is." That wasn't very... polite.

"Rice balls, aru. You ate them back at the cave, aru. Now eat." He looked at his food, taking in the new information. It's ticking me off to quite an extent that he won't eat his food.

"Muscovy. Eat it now, aru." I try to put some fierce-ness into my voice so that he obeys. He frowns a little but he doesn't do what he is told. How troublesome.

"But, I want some Shashlyk.*" I could practically hear the pout in his voice. It helped when I saw him puff his cheeks out slightly in a frown. But what is a Shashlyk? I put on a puzzled face and asked the younger nation, "A Shashlyk, aru? What is that, aru?" He beams at me and I know this is going to turn out into him cooking. Which I don't plan on rooting for anytime soon. He grabs my hand and leads me out the door in a hurry. When he makes it out of my house he stops. He just stands there for a while before he pipes up, "Where's the lambs? A-And the cows. And, pigs?" His amazement on how little animal life in my front yard amuses me to an extent. But enough with the tease, I should just straight up tell him. Or I could have some fun to day and...

"You have to find them, aru." He gasps loudly and places his hands over his mouth.

"Are you s'th'erious?" He mumbles through muffled hands. I nod and he beams brighter. He runs inside and, before I could blink, he's back outside with hunting material at the ready. If hunting material meanta butterfly's net, some funny looking whistle, a backpack, and a bamboo stick. He looked more ready to catch mutant bugs if anything. He grins again and his eyes are lit up with anticipation.

"Where can I find them?" I chuckle at the near-minded-ness of this boy. Might as well finish what I started.

"In the forest, little one, aru. You will find millions of animals there." His shoulders raise in a type of gasp. I am at the edge of bursting out laughing. He hugs my waist tightly and steps back. He does a lazy salute and turns around. I'll just get some small creatures to follow him around in case anything happens. I wave him good-bye with a napkin like what they do in those dramatic plays but once he sees me do this he runs back. He jumps onto me and I try my hardest to make sure I catch him. He dry-sobs into my shoulder.

"I-I'm sorry, papa! I p-p-promise I won't leave again!!" I couldn't tell if this was a mood swing or something else. Maybe I just brought back bad memories when I waved good-bye. I'm guessing that's it.

"It's fine, Muscovy. You can go find the animals, aru. I won't be mad." He smiles at me, his eyes red and puffy from not being able to shed the tears. I wonder why he can't. He jumps out of my arms and exclaims, "Then I'm off!" He runs towards the gate and to the forest. He reminded me a bit of England's child. I walk into my house, Muscovy should be home soon enough.

-------
A/n:
Changing to 3 person pov for the sake of the story.
Will be back to normal later.
Thank you for your kind consideration.
-------

"Woah..." Muscovy gawks at the height of the bamboo tree-stick-things. He shifts his backpack some and adjusts his scarf- which he oddly still had on. He yelps when something taps on his shoulder. He turns to see... "Alfred?" Said boy nods happily. His cowlick bouncing a bit at his actions. Ivan mirrors the smile, "Hi. I'm gonna' go catch some animals for papa and me." He brings out his hand, "Wanna' help?" The American youth took his hand greedily, "Of course!" The pair took a few steps and stood in front of the forest, and Muscovy thought from afar that it looked big. This was HUGE! The pale-blond took a deep breath and collected up all his courage, he took a step while stating: "One step for man," and, the other little country finished him off by yelling and jumping at the same time, "One giant leap for man kind!!" America made a note to himself to get copyright of that line soon.

Ivan smiled and followed his friend. Canada stumbled -forgotten by his brother- behind.

--

"W-Wow." The pair says in unison as they quickly find out that they are lost. And, how hard it will be to get back to their parents. America shifts his shirt a bit and took a small step towards an entrance in the bamboo stalks. He looks in cautiously, it seemed to go on for miles. The two jump when they hear shuffling from behind, they turn to see it was only America's lost brother. He was crying frantically and his toy bear looked like it was going to pop from being held so tightly. Alfred scoffs at his weak younger brother and remarks unkindly, "Quit it with the water works and belt up!" The sibling tries to do as told.

"Didn' I tell you to stay back with Mommy and Daddy?" The Canadian nods slowly, wiping a few tears in the process. Muscovy watches in the background as the elder brother continues, "Well, since we know you can't do anything helpful," We? "then you're going to carry the supplies." He snatches the net, bamboo stick, and back-pack away from Ivan. He pushes the equipment into his younger brother's hands. Canada stumbles a little before putting on the backpack and grasping the net tightly in one arm. His teddy in the other. They threw caution to the wind and stepped into the path that little America saw earlier. It was dark- really, really dark. The children could barely see their hands in front of their faces. America and Canada were both terrified of the pitch-black pathway. The 'twins' began to sob, Ivan in full composure. He grabs their hands and tells them that he'll get them out of this place. He lifts the whistle that hung around his neck to his mouth and gives it one hard blow. The crying colonies watch in amazement at the odd thing. It continually made a pretty tune- though it was not being played. Muscovy takes his mouth off the odd instrument and the group waits. Ivan hoping that he did it the right way. Silence surrounds them, disregarding Matthew's hiccups here and there. Then, out of the blue, the ground began to shake. The three kids hold each other tightly, afraid that if they let go something might get them. As soon as it came, the massive quake is gone. Muscovy looks at his two new friends to see that none took any damage. He turns to see a large animal.

The beast is huge, he has four limbs, all armed with claws like that of an eagle's. The animal's green scales shines like diamond's in the old sun. Ivan takes an uncertain step towards the gigantic reptile. It's whiskers flare slightly, and it's demon-like eyes glow with caution. America and Canada, who still have tight grasps around each other, watch silently as Muscovy takes a bow. His long scarf slightly touching the floor as he did so. The majestic dragon nods without a sound and Muscovy looks up, expression brighter then before. He jogged back to the two embracing brothers, "Guys, c'mon! We can ride the d'wagon's back back to our pa'wents, da!" America brightens immediately; he had always dreamed of flying. Matthew nodded, not having any trouble with high places. The children run up to the lóng and they hoist them selves onto the reptile's back. Relief washes over Muscovy when he sees the scales cause no damage to their beings. He grabbed onto the dragon's long horns, they remind him so much of a stag's. Canada wraps his tiny arms around his form and Alfred does the same to his brother that sat in front of him. Without warning, they are already soaring through the blue sky. Which is turning a darker shade of blue for bedtime is close. Muscovy smiles to himself, he can't wait to see Papa's face when he gets home... without the food!!!

"M-Mister Lóng! We need to get a sheep or cow or something before we get home!!" Ivan is frantic, he doesn't want to fail his new papa after being in this wonderful place for less then a whole day! The blond pets the dragon's chimu as a begging sort of action. He almost looses his grip on the reptile's horns when he nods his head. The animal dives down, the three colonies tightening their grips on whatever they're holding. The vicious animal snatched up a cow with no trouble at all. Digging its razor-sharp claw into the cow's neck and making it die almost instantly. Any blood that seeped out is quickly licked up by the serpent's long snake-resembling tongue. Muscovy looks around and sees that it is very dark, the moon was the brightest thing in the sky. Stars shone throughout the vast space; the blond was a tad disappointed to see that there was not a hint of that beautiful rainbow that always appeared back at his home town. Ivan looks down, thrilled to see his house. He tells the dragon that his house is directly under them. The reptile dives down at an incredible speed, causing all the little boys to shut their eyes tightly and their grips on each other fix. It lands in Ivan's Papa's front yard, tail brushing against the bushes. Muscovy slid off quickly, eager beyond belief to see Yao again. The lóng passed him a few cut up chunks of beef, having already cut it up itself. Ivan thanks the animal and walks towards the North American brothers: "You guys tell the dwagonwhich way your house is." He places a cheeky smile on his face before adding, "Thanks a bunch for coming with me!" Canada nods and America flashes a thumbs up, both actions were hard to see in this thick darkness. What time is it? Nine? Ten? The cold nation turns around and begins walking towards his house, the sound of the Magical dragon taking off fills his ears. When he came up to the front door he knocks a few times.

A servant is there and opens the door, leading the boy to his room. He tells the woman that he hasn't had dinner yet and how he brought home some food. She merely takes the meat away, places it on a nearby table, and continues pushing him throughout the large house. Muscovy pouts but continues walking nonetheless. The woman leads him to a wash room, there she begins taking off his clothes. Setting them on a shelf most likely made for clothes. Ivan complied with the woman's actions, the sound of running water telling him what was to come. Ivan jumps into the metal tub, letting an 'ooh' sneak out when the hot water comes in contact with his skin. He washes his hair quickly and jumps out again. His wash maybe taking around five minutes. He grabs the pair of silky pajamas that the servant left, slipping them on quickly and heading towards the door. He opens to door and looks around, the hallway is really dark. Following his gut, he went left: he opens a door and walks inside. The moon illuminating the room well. He sees someone curled up on the bed, the silky red tie that held his hair shines in the moonlight. He waddles over to the bed, pajama bottoms slightly tripping the cold nation. He comes to the edge of the mattress and lifts himself up, careful not to wake China. Seeing an open space between his arms he crawls in. Snuggling up to the older nation till his nose was in the Asian's chest. He shuts his purple irises, mind filled with thoughts on tomorrow and how fun today was. How he is going to spend yet another day in this beautiful land and how he is going to spend it with Yao. Muscovy smiles as his mind fades into the land of dreams.

*Shashlyk: Skewered dish, generally made with beef, pork, or lamb, popular throughout the Soviet Union and Mongolia. Shishlyk is prepared the same way as shashlyk, and usually has very strong tasting and spicy marinades.

Alright, found out that the Mongols were Chinese. I feel the need to remake the first chapter- make it more historically correct if you know what I mean?
Mein Gott, I'm such a bastard. I totally pushed this off into a corner to be left to rot. I apologize.
I think Russia would have separation anxiety. Maybe. I don't know.

I found out that not getting reviews on a story is pretty depressing. Makes you think 'FML'. Haha,,,ha,,

How good is this chapter? From like a 1-10 scale what do you think?