It had been a few weeks since Italy's visit to England. Arthur was beginning to feel slightly better about things, although he still wasn't able to look at anything that had reminded him of Alfred. The servants took down all the photos and paintings of the young American boy because of it, storing them away in the cellar.

The week seemed to pass by slowly. England had taken to coming downstairs every one in awhile, sitting in his fancy parlor to have a cup of tea. It wasn't a big improvement, but at least he wasn't entirely enclosed in his bedroom all day.

It was about mid afternoon when a loud, impatient knocking erupted at the door. Eliza was currently the only maid downstairs so she was quick to go to the door. When she did so, she almost gasped. Two men stood in the doorway, though she didn't recognize who they were. The alarming part was that one man had dark red eyes and very light colored hair, almost white.

The man beside the red eyed man had blue eyes and blonde hair. He looked younger than the other, sporting a slight grimace as the red eyed man gave a smirk to the maid.

"Why hello there madam. This wouldn't happen to be Mr. Arthur Kirkland's home would it?" He asked cheerfully. His accent was heavily German, but it sounded sort of cool. He waited for Eliza to nod before he continued. "I'm Gilbert Beilschmidt, but you can just call me Mr. Awesome. This here is my baby brother Luddy!"

'Luddy' gave an exasperated look and spoke up. "It's actually Ludwig. Please forgive my brother."

Eliza still looked slightly alarmed, but gave another timid nod. "Of course. So...you wanted to see Mr. Kirkland?"

"Yeah!" Gilbert said. "It's been awhile since I've seem him, plus I wanted to see how he was holding up from the loss of the war!"

Needless to say, it wasn't long before both Germans were led to the parlor and told to wait. Arthur was very surprised to find out that they were visiting. He was upset because Prussia had helped train American troops to fight against him, but he supposed he needed to suck it up and see Gilbert. After putting on a nice dress shirt and slacks, he proceeded down to his parlor.

He stepped into the room tentatively. Gilbert and Ludwig were both sitting on the fancy loveseat. The older German was ranting off to Ludwig about how awesome he was. Arthur sighed quietly before walking further into the room, letting his presence be known.

"There you are Arthur! I was beginning to think you'd chicken out on coming down!" Gilbert said, giving a half smirk, half smile.

"It's a pleasure to see you Gilbert. You too Ludwig." Arthur forced himself to say, plopping down into a chair across from the brothers. For a moment a stab of pain shot through his heart as he saw the two brothers together. If Alfred were here then he'd sit next to him...

"So, how are you taking the epic loss of the war?" Gilbert's strong voice stirred Arthur from his thoughts.

"Fine. Just fine." The Brit said shortly, biting his lower lip to keep him from swearing at the albino country.

"Mmmm, is that so?" Gilbert said casually. "You must have felt horrible since France allied with the kid. It's no wonder that they won though, his troops were trained by the awesome me!"

Arthur bit his lip even tighter, fists clenching the arms of his chair tightly. Ludwig shot a glare as his older brother, shooting Arthur a look between apology and pity. Gilbert seemed to understand that he struck a nerve, so he was silent for a moment. The silence made the atmosphere a little uneasy for all three of them.

"Hows everything going in your country at the moment?" Ludwig finally broke the silence.

"...Just fine" Arthur muttered. He was beginning to feel that heavy, sinking feeling in his heart again. Almost as if someone very close to him had died. That was what America leaving felt like to him in the first place. To Arthur, his sweet adorable baby brother had died, and gotten replaced by a bratty, rambunctious teen.

"Ahem...would you gentleman care for some tea?" The three men were disrupted by a maid who had walked in, carrying a delicate tray with three cups of tea.

"Thank you very much" Gilbert said as he and Ludwig took some tea. Arthur took his as well but was silent. The maid seemed to notice and sent a slightly disapproving look at the two others. She soon left, so the three drank their tea quietly. It seemed that Arthur was no longer in a talking mood. Ludwig seemed to notice this and cleared his throat.

"Perhaps it's time for us to take our leave brother?" He suggested quietly.

"Aww West, I'm not finished with my tea yet! Don't be so impatient!" Prussia scolded light-heartedly. It only took him a few more minutes to be done before standing and stretching his back.

"Well, thanks for having us Arthur! Don't take your ridiculous pitiful loss to hard huh?" Prussia said, patting Arthur's shoulder briefly before saying, "Come West, time to leave!"

Ludwig however, waited until his big brother was out of the room before turning to Arthur.

"Listen England, don't take any mind to Gilbert's words. He clearly doesn't understand how much this war affected you. We both send out regards." He said kindly. Arthur only nodded mutely, shifting to take another sip of tea.

"Weeest! What's taking you so long?" Gilbert called from the distance. Ludwig said a quick farewell before leaving to go follow his brother. Arthur didn't move from his spot for a few minutes. His knuckles were white since they had still been digging into the armrests. He struggled to slow down his upset breathing. He missed his baby brother...

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

"It looks like your country is running quite well mon ami" France said to the person who sat across from him, who looked barely old enough to be a man.

"Hahah, well Washington has really done wonders since we've won. Things are only going to get better!" America responded enthusiastically from his seat across from the Frenchman. France had traveled to America to see how the young man was doing with his recent independence. So far things looked quite well.

"That's wonderful. I'm glad your doing well." France said smoothly, sipping on the coffee that America had served.

"Yeah. Uh...so hows Arthur doing?" America asked, rubbing his neck uncomfortably.

"He's doing as well as to be expected. It's not easy after winning a war, or loosing someone close." Francis told him with a gentle smile.

"But he didn't loose me!" America argued. "I keep sending him letters, and I really wanna see him! He never sends anything back though...for all I know he might not even be reading the letters."

"I know. Arthur is a very stubborn being, in both country and human ways. He's having mixed feelings about everything. Shame and embarrassing from loosing the war, pain and hurt from you leaving him, and tired from fighting so hard." Francis said.

"I didn't mean to make him so sad...I was ready to become independent though. He needs to understand...I want him to be proud of me, not hate me!" Alfred said sadly.

"I know mon ami. You were not wrong to become independent. It's time for Arthur to learn to let go. We'll just have to be understanding and nice to him so he can get better." Francis told him.

"Yeah.." Alfred sighed. "I really didn't mean to hurt him that bad."

"It's alright Amerique. Perhaps when he feels stronger you could visit him."

"I really wanna see him soon though!" Alfred whined.

"Patience now, and the time will come sooner than you think." Francis said with a chuckle.

a/n: So sorry it took awhile to update...I've been busy preparing for finals and such. I plan to have America visit, but not for a little while. First well put in some other suggestions, like Canada, Japan, ect...anyways, I hope everything is doing well. Please review!

History note: Prussia helped train American troops during the revolution. I love Prussia, but I had to make him sort of a bit of a jerk to fit my story. He's still totally awesome though!