A/N: Sorry for the wait. Since a lot of this stuff was written a while ago, recent events like the tsunami which hit Samoa and such don't get much of a mention. So yeah.
Adult characters:
Timor Leste (Ana Maria Gusmão) – Australia's good-natured northern neighbour, Timor Leste, despite her country's troubled 500-year history, always tries to keep a positive outlook on life. She gets along very well with Australia and New Zealand, who help her keep order in her country when things get out of hand, as well as her uncle, Portugal.
Papua New Guinea (Paias Sepik) – A brother of Australia and New Zealand, and one of Samoa's cousins. Until the 1970s, Australia was taking care of Papua New Guinea as a territory, but eventually let him become independent. Though pretty big, he's also a fairly quiet guy.
Nauru (Adeiwa) - Another of Germany's sons and Samoa's brothers. When he was younger, Germany stopped the bloodiest civil war in his country's history, but at great cost. He used to be very wealthy, but when his natural resources dried up, he and his people became quite impoverished. He's pretty reliant on economic help from his neighbours these days.
Kiribati (Tekaiwa Tong) - A brother of Australia, New Zealand and the United States, Kiribati is an early-bird - he wakes up before any other country in the world. He's also one of the biggest of his Pacific island neighbours.
Tuvalu (Fenua Puapua) - Another branch on the British Empire family tree, Tuvalu, though tiny, is a huge fan of rugby. Much like Canada, though, Tuvalu has visibility problems - being so tiny, few, if any, outside of the Pacific can really recognise her that well.
...
Enjoy!
...
New Zealand's car pulled up out the front of the house, its engine chugging along noisily as ever. "Well, we're here." Australia climbed out of the vehicle as New Zealand cut the engine. Together, the two brothers walked together to the front door of the house.
Unable to find a doorbell, New Zealand struck the door lightly a few times. "Knock-knock!" A muffled voice from inside responded shortly afterwards, and a noisy rattle came rom the door's lockwork as it was unlocked.
Taking the initiative, Australia opened the door. As he did so, he was greeted by a familiar, dark olive face. "Bondia [1], Australia! You too, New Zealand! Please, come inside."
A slight blush developed on Australia's face as the young woman greeted him. "Good morning to you too, Timor Leste. Do y'know who else has made it here so far," he asked, walking inside with his brother.
"Well," Timor Leste replied, "Samoa's here, of course. Nauru, Tokelau and Kiribati are both here, too. Your alin [2], New Guinea, called and said he would be arriving very soon..."
"Good to hear. Now that I think about it, I haven't seen Papua in a while... I should drop by my little brother's place more often." Australia looked around again. "What about America and China, though? I heard they were coming over as dialogue partners..."
"America's coming over with New Guinea, but China... cancelled."
Australia sighed and shook his head. "Bloody dill. All this over that stickybeak [3] he caught over at his place earlier this year..." He began to dwell on last month's little 'incident', and the huge argument between him and China that ended up spilling over [4]. Could he have really taken it so seriously...?
With Australia starting to become frustrated, and New Zealand walking off to chat with Tokelau, Timor sought to change the subject. "Australia," Timor began, looking up at the country before her, "could you pay a visit to my home after the meeting?"
Australia snapped out of his navel-gazing, giving the young nation a somewhat meek look as he replied. "Why do you need me hangin' around? More political strife and instability?"
She nodded. "Every time I try to clean up, another crisis sweeps through and ruins everything. America and aman-boot [5] Portugal aren't being all that helpful, and I could really use a big, strong country to help me out...[6]" Timor's voice had trailed off into a dreamy tone.
Australia straightened his tie. If he didn't know any better, he would have sworn Timor was coming on to him. Was she? Still, in any case, there was no way he could say no to a face like hers. "Of course I'll come over; don't you worry about a thing."
Timor's face lit up as she smiled and hugged Australia. "Obrigado, belu!" [7] If there was one thing Australia liked about Timor, it was her attitude. No matter how bad things got for her and her people, she always managed to hold onto a little hope for a brighter future. [8]
...
America, New Guinea and all the other nations had arrived, and the meeting was about to begin. All those in attendance were seated around a large wooden table, all flicking through their folders and double-checking last meeting's minutes. A dull roar of gossip and diplomatic chatter pervaded the room. Samoa, sitting at the head of the table, brought down his staff. "Order!" Though a small nation, Samoa was by no means invisible to even the largest of his Pacific neighbours. The room fell silent. "The meeting is now in session." He picked up a timetable and read over it carefully. "First on the agenda, it seems New Zealand has a proposal regarding the economic crisis. New Zealand?"
New Zealand rose to his feet. "Thank you." He picked up some notes he had written earlier. "With the i'conomy as it is right now, many members of the Forum are i'xperiencing many diff'uculties. Nauru's almost bankrupt [9], and even me and Australia have taken a hit."
The members present nodded in agreement. A shout of "Hear hear!" came from Nauru's place.
"Thus, I have come up with a solution. We may be able to fix the i'conomy using super-glue and some No. 8 wire..." [10]
Australia suddenly rose to his feet, irritated. "That's yer solution to everything!"
Zealand returned fire, just as quickly. "It worked for your tractor, didn't it?"
"That's not the point!" Australia looked at his brother with an indignant glare. "Anyway, my solution to the crisis is much better."
"And what'd that be?" New Zealand inquired, somewhat sarcastically.
"Everyone here adopts my dollars, o'course! After all, I'm the only Western country that never fell into recession in the last year. And a common currency and economy has helped keep Europe fairly stable, hasn't it? I mean, sure, they still went into recession, but..."
A clearly irked New Zealand shot back, cutting Australia off. "But why does it have to be YOUR curr'incy?"
"Well, it can't be yours; as far as I can tell from listening to you speak, YOU probably think 'economy' is spelt with an 'i'!"
"Order, order!" Samoa broke out the flywhisk and knocked the two feuding brothers back into their seats before a fight could break out. "You're family; act like it!" The two grumbled before Samoa resumed his seat. Like his father Germany, it seemed Samoa was quite the peacekeeper at meetings. Australia, remembering what had happened earlier with his children, was taking in the irony of the situation between him and New Zealand.
"Mind if I say something?" America asked, adjusting his spectacles. Nauru and Tuvalu tried to raise an objection, but, being the tiniest nations in attendance, were given no real notice – not that America would have cared much if he did, anyway. "No objections? None? Good. Why don't all the countries just adopt my money?" Everyone in the room promptly gave him a blank stare. "The hero's dollar is a world standard! And, if Australia and New Zealand over there just change over, everyone in the Pacif-"
New Zealand cut in before he could continue. "Do we have to remind you, America, that the curr'int crisis is mostly your fault? If we were all tied down to you, we'd have sunk long ago!" His eyes looked back over at Australia. "It's no wonder people always confuse you with America over there," New Zealand noted, shifting from a serious to more of a mocking tone, "you're two bloody peas in a pod!"
Before things could deteriorate further, Samoa once again intervened. "I think we have heard enough about the economy for now, so onto the next issue. Nauru?"
A tiny individual at the end of the table stood up. "Yes, brother. My territorial waters are being violated by illegal fishers, but, as all here know, I have no navy. I'd like to request that Australia deploy extra naval assets to protect me, as per our agreement."
"Er, well..." Australia's eyes darted quickly over to Timor, before returning to Nauru. He couldn't watch over both these nations in need at once... could he? He exchanged a quick glance with his koala companion before continuing. "I think I'll be quite... busy... keeping East Timor in check for a while. Maybe New Zealand could fix someth-"
New Zealand dragged Australia down by his collar until they were both beneath the table, hidden from sight. He began to murmur into his brother's ear. "Australia, you and I both know you're just interested in tapping Timor's oil wells."
Australia made no effort to deny the charge, instead shrugging lightly."Point being?"
"Point being, I'm not going to let you shove your responsibilities onto me like this without something in return."
"And what did you have in mind as payback?"
"For a start, knock it off with the sheep-shagging jokes."
Australia mockingly entered into another bout of deep thought. "Hmm... Get to ignore Nauru, or get to call you a sheep-shagger..." He mimed a pair of scales with his hands. "Ignore Nauru, call you a sheep-shagger..." New Zealand was just about to stare a hole into Australia's face at that point. "Oh, knock it off, mate. You know I'm just joshin' ya. Sure, I'll lay off the sheep jokes if you help me out here." He smiled, and put his hand on New Zealand's shoulder. "What do you say, mate?"
New Zealand cracked a slight grin, putting his own arm on Australia's shoulder. "Sounds good to me, bro."
With that, both returned to the discussion at hand. "After some brief negotiations with New Zealand, we believe we've reached a workable agreement regarding the deployment of extra naval assets to Nauru's waters..."
...
[1] - Tetum for "good morning". Tetum is one of the main languages of East Timor, alongside Portuguese.
[2] - Tetum for "younger brother".
[3] - Stickybeak - Australian slang for "nosy person"
[4] - Sino-Australian relations have recently entered something best described as a "clusterfuck". Between the arrest of an Australian national on espionage charges (the "stickybeak" mentioned earlier), difficult dealings with Australian businesses and Australia granting a Xinjiang separatist leader a visa, it's no wonder.
[5] - Aman-boot - Tetum for "uncle".
[6] - There have been multinational taskforces deployed to Timor since the late 1990s. Being the biggest, strongest Western country in the vicinity, Australia deploys the bulk of the foreign assets and manpower.
[7] - Tetum for "thank you, friend".
[8] - East Timor has been getting the proverbial short end of the stick for quite some time, now. Between over 400 years of foreign rule by Portugal, a Japanese invasion, three decades of struggle against Indonesian occupation and a less-than-perfect independence, the fact that a large portion of Timorese society has managed to maintain a stiff upper lip throughout speaks volumes.
[9] - Nauru was pretty much bankrupt before the economic crisis, with a 90% unemployment rate and relying on Australian and New Zealand aid to stay afloat.
[10] - New Zealanders are known for their nigh-insane DIY attitude. For a good example, look up the "Bob Semple tank" on Wikipedia.r.