Author's Note: OK, so I know I said fluffy this chapter, but... I couldn't resist. This is kinda inspired by a conversation I had with my Canadian PM buddy, KTrevo. This is what she said, in response to my rant about (stupid) Congress (which is stupid, being stupid): "Pretty much all of us up here in the Great White North are laughing at you guys right now. I mean, seriously- they shut down NATURE as well? Honestly."

So, in honor of the end to the government shutdown, I'm going to write a chapter about the government shutting down! Does that make sense? Nope~!

Enjoy!

"Mattie..."

"Alfred?" Canada turned around to see America walking slowly toward him. He frowned. "What's wrong?"

"Ma... ttie..." America swayed a bit, grabbing Canada's arm.

"Alfred? What are you doing?"

"Don't... feel... good..." He stumbled a bit.

"Al? Al, you're scaring me! Stop it!" Canada was beginning to feel a bit panicked.

"Mattie..." Suddenly, America collapsed onto his northern brother.

"ALFRED!"

Chapter 3: In which the American government shutdown has an interesting effect on the nation representative of America.

And Canada laughs at him for it.

"Soooo... you're telling me that your government managed to shut itself down... over some health insurance bill they passed three times already?"

"Uh-huh." America snuggled deeper under his covers at Canada's incredulous look.

"And so you collapsed on me."

"Yeah..."

"... Alfred, you need to get a better government."

America bristled a bit at this. "Hey! It's not my fault! The citizens elected them! I can't do anything about it!"

Canada sighed. "Fine, calm down. So, what exactly did they shut down?"

America frowned. "Uh... well, my boss told me they had to furlough-"

"Do you even know what that means, Al?" Canada said with a smirk, lifting a cup of coffee (with maple syrup in it!) to his mouth.

America pouted and threw a pillow at him. "As I was saying, they had to furlough a whole bunch of 'nonessential' government employees, and they shut down all those museums and stuff, like the Smithsonian... Oh, they shut down nature too."

Canada sputtered, almost spitting out his coffee. "They did WHAT?"

"Shut down nature. You know, national parks and stuff."

"Your government shut down nature," Canada stated rather than asked.

"Uh... yeah, that's what I just said..."

"They shut down... nature. The United States government shut down nature... PFFT! HAHAHAHAHA!"

America frowned at his brother, who was currently rolling around on the ground in fits of uncontrolled laughter, and lobbed another pillow in his direction. "Stop it, Mattie! It's not that funny!"

"But they shut down NATURE, of all things!"

"OK, fine, they didn't shut down nature, they shut down the people's enjoyment of nature! Nature can't be shut down, I'm sorry I worded it wrong!"

Canada ignored him and went right on laughing.

"Plus, you're missing the point! The most important thing is that the MCDONALD'S EMPLOYEES ARE GOING ON STRIKE! HOW WILL I GET BURGERS?!"

Then America promptly had a panic attack and fainted.

Canada stopped laughing, got up, magically summoned a bucket of freezing Hudson Bay seawater, and poured it on his twin.

America jerked awake.

Canada started rolling on the ground laughing again.

America threw a pillow at Canada. Again.

Except it wasn't a pillow. It was America mochi.

"It's OKEY! I'm AMERICAN!" the little sticky-rice-flour-ball-dessert-thing-possibly-stuf fed-with-sweet-filling decided to exclaim.

"Eh... I'm CANADIAN! CANADIAN! I'M NOT AMERICAN, I'M CANADIAN!" Canada mochi randomly popped out of nowhere, waving miniature Canadian flags and freaking out about mistaken nationalities.

America mochi decided to grow legs and step on him.

Both North American brothers sweatdropped.

Author's Note: I don't even know what happened at the end there... Meh, whatever. The Hetalia mochi are awesome. There, good enough reason.

So... all of the random current events mentioned are real. Google it if you want to know more.

Next chapter will hopefully be the fluffy one. Unless I get sidetracked again by something stupid the government of America (or maybe even Canada, who knows?) does.

So... hope you liked it?