The next few days passed by faster than the girls could have imagined. On their lazy day they hung out around the house and got used to the silence, even sharing in Arthur's 'Tea Time' when he invited them to. They paid little attention to the news on television, instead talking more about what the countries did for their jobs and how different things worked that the show had never directly explained. Reagan even provoked a pretty extensive history lesson about the UK, and in the end was left with a large book to further her learning. While Corytha was interested, she decided to let Reagan read and tell her about it later. Meanwhile Sam was just enjoying the fact all of this was still real and they would be meeting more countries next week.

After their lazy day, Arthur did as he'd promised and took them to different locations for four days straight. The first day involved Reagan's points of interest, which included the parliament building and Big Ben. The tour of the building had been interesting, though at times Sam would zone out and just stare at random things in the area. Reagan and Corytha listened intently, though Reagan would often ask questions or even point out extra things to Corytha about the architecture and elements that came from different places. She'd taken a course in Art History, and this building was one of the things they talked about in the architectural unit. Her favorite was the rib vaulting. They stood outside to hear Big Ben go off, to which Reagan almost squealed in delight while they walked on to see the London Eye. The later it had gotten after dinner that night, lamps came on while they moved along, and the girls couldn't help but feel moved by the lights in the growing darkness of night. Even the ferris wheel was illuminated in blue, and Reagan stared at it in wonder for some time until Sam began to insist it was time to head back.

With that day done, the next was spent at the Tower of London, followed by Arthur showing them around that part of town for a little while. Sam particularly enjoyed watching the guards moving about, and she knew there would be more to see at their next destination as well. She wasn't dumb enough to try pulling any stunts though, as she sometimes saw others doing. Arthur didn't seem too fond of the behavior anyway, and she had no desire to get on his bad side, even though she was honestly curious. They went to Buckingham Palace the next day, and finally on the last day they ventured out over an hour that morning to let Corytha see the ancient site of Stonehenge. Considering the blonde hadn't said much since their arrival in this world, her companions were shocked as she started babbling on about how cool the stones were and how hard it must have been to move the stones from miles away, since she knew quite a bit about them and the theories surrounding their existence. To be honest, she was a fanatic about ancient civilizations and mysterious places, and Reagan shared some of her enthusiasm, though she preferred more modern art and buildings. At one point she even asked the Brit if he knew anything else about them, but he'd only laughed and said she'd nearly covered it all. Since it was made before he was even a country, he himself didn't know exactly how they'd come to be.

Later that night they all walked back into the house and went to their usual seats in the living room. Sam yawned and held a hand over her mouth while Reagan set down the history book she'd still been reading and smiled fondly, recalling everything they'd experienced the past few days.

"Well this has been the best few days of my life so far," she announced with a grin. Arthur beamed with pride. He wouldn't lie, he'd had a lot of fun too showing them around, even if it only scratched the surface of his country.

"Yeah, thanks for putting up with our American tourist habits," Sam grinned, crossing her arms behind her head. "And to think that's probably like 5% of all the stuff you can see here!"

"Thank you for today." Corytha added with a shy smile of her own.

It wasn't often that he truly enjoyed having company around him, considering most of the time it ended up being someone like America or France who seemed to enjoy ruining his peace. Having them around had been a change of pace for once, and they'd only been curious to know more. He'd expected having three teenage girls around would be somewhat of a challenge, but instead they were well-mannered and helped out when they got the chance. Though Sam cracked jokes every now and then, even she would ask if he needed her to do anything during their downtime. For teenagers, they were oddly polite and open-minded.

"It's been my pleasure," he said with a slight nod. "Honestly I'm surprised the three of you wanted to look around at all, but I'm glad you enjoyed it."

"Why wouldn't we?" Reagan asked, tilting her head with a slightly confused look. "There's a lot of neat stuff to see here."

"Well to be frank, at your age I figured all you'd be interested in was either lounging around or shopping," he said with a nervous laugh before straightening up and clearing his throat. "But you've proven me quite wrong about that."

"Damn straight," Sam replied bluntly. "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, I'm not wasting it by sitting on my ass the whole time! I've got things to do and places to see!"

"That, and we're probably not like your average teenagers," Reagan reasoned with a knowing smile of her own. "At least I should hope."

After a few more minutes, Reagan suddenly gasped and fumbled for her phone, desperately pulling it out and turning it on. The others looked at her in surprise from the sudden worry on her face.

"What is it?" Arthur asked in moderate concern.

"I forgot to call my grandma! She told me to call her every couple days," she said quickly, dialing the number and holding the device to her ear. She put it on speaker upon Sam's request while Arthur muted the television. A few rings later, someone answered the phone.

"Reagan? Is that you?"

The strawberry blonde smiled in relief. "Hey grandma! Yeah, it's me."

"Oh! It's so nice to hear from you dearie!"

"I'm so sorry, I forgot to call you a few nights ago," she sighed, running a hand through her hair.

"Don't you worry about that, I'm just glad you're alright. How's everything going over there?"

"It's going fine. You wouldn't believe the things we've seen these past few days!"
"Oh? Really?"

For the next half hour, Reagan and her friends described what they'd seen and experienced in their short time here so far. It had hardly been a week and already they'd had a good time exploring a new place and trying new foods. Even Corytha was finally more at ease about the situation, her own worries fading a bit as she felt safer being here until they went home. Towards the end of the conversation, her grandmother even asked to talk to Arthur, commenting on his charming accent and thanking him for taking care of the girls while they were there. Overall it was a pleasant conversation for everyone.

A little while later, they said their goodbyes and hung up the phone, leaving the room in silence for several moments before Arthur decided to break it.

"Your grandmother seems like a really nice person," he commented with a smile, looking at Reagan. Then his smile faltered a bit, glancing between the three of them. "Though I'm kind of curious, why is it that you girls haven't called your parents?"

This time is was a somewhat disturbing silence that fell upon the room. They'd already explained to him before that they were all friends living in the same household, so he knew they must have had separate families. Though it was strange how even Reagan had only called her grandmother and not her parents.

"W-Well, my grandmother is the one in charge of us, technically, since we're living in a house that she paid for. My grandparents take care of me," Reagan reasoned, trying to keep her tone normal.

"Yeah, and my mom quite frankly doesn't care what I do. To be honest the only one who should know is Reagan's grandma. By the time we get back it's not like our parents will even have to know this happened."

"Plus they're not open-minded like she is," Reagan continued. "They wouldn't believe us even if we told them."

Arthur gave them a somewhat questioning look. He supposed it did make sense, but the way they'd delivered their words was somewhat… scrambled. As if there was something more that they didn't want to say. He decided not to push it in case he was stepping into uncomfortable territory.

"...I see." It was all he could think to say.

"Anyway, when's that meeting supposed to be?" Sam prompted, hoping to change the direction of the conversation.

"Ah, that. Two days from now," he said. "It will only be about an hour to get to the conference building. It'll last a few hours, probably."

"Are we going with you?" Reagan asked.

He nodded. "Since you're staying here, we decided it would be a good idea to let the others know about the situation. Even though they may have seen you at the last meeting, you were never formally introduced. Since we tend to do a lot together it would be best if you were all at least acquainted."

The girls nodded in understanding while Sam gave a slightly wary look.

"Will we have to sit in that room the entire time or can we wait in the lobby?"

"I suppose you can choose whatever you want. When it's time to introduce you I could just call you in."

"That works. I'd rather not sit in there while y'all discuss any of the serious shazz," she admitted as she closed her eyes. "That is if you even get to the serious stuff."

He huffed a bit, painfully aware of what her last statement implied. Too often the meetings usually spiraled out of control. Very little seemed to get done sometimes.

"It's getting late, I'm off to bed," Arthur said as he got to his feet.

"Yeah, I'm beat," Sam yawned. Everyone walked up the stairs together then parted ways at the top after exchanging goodnights. It had become almost habitual by now.

When the girls wandered into their room and closed the door, Sam flopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling for a minute or two. Reagan and Corytha exchanged a glance, knowing she was probably about to speak. About what? They had no idea.

"You know, it may be strange to say, but… I'm almost glad England's spell messed up," she said. "Look at how amazing this has been, and it's hardly been a week! And soon Italy wants to have us over. I'm not even sad that we'll miss the beginning of college."

Reagan shrugged, sitting down next to her while Corytha climbed under her own sheets.

"I can see your point," she said. "This has been really fun so far. I'm nervous about him introducing us at the meeting, though."

"I'm excited about that," Sam piped up, turning on her side to face them with a cheeky grin. "Once the others know we'll be here for a while, they might want to have us over too! Or at least talk to us or something. Think about how many of them we could end up being friends with!"

"I'm curious to see what they'll say when they see us the next time. I mean last time all we did was walk dumbfounded out of the room, so the only ones who really know us now are the Axis powers and England."

"Maybe they'll debate on having us stay at other houses," Sam laughed, kind of thrilled at the idea. "I'm not sure I want to be moving around too much, we finally got settled here!"

"But what if you were invited to stay with Spain or Germany or something? You can't tell me you wouldn't want to go for at least a few days!"
"Look, I'm just saying don't expect them to get all excited just because a couple of humans are here from another world for a little while. They're busy people, I'm sure."

"Hah, wanna bet?"

Corytha listened to her friends go back and forth for a while, trying to block out the various thoughts and possibilities that often swarmed her mind when she was tired. Then a light ping caught her attention and she unlocked her phone to find a text had been sent from Italy. She bit the inside of her lip and opened her messages.

Feliciano: "Ciao, bella~! How have you been? :D"

Corytha: "Hi Feli! I've been fine. Arthur's been showing us around the past few days."

Feliciano: "Si, Reagan's told me! Are you having fun? :)"

Corytha: "Lots! (= We even went to Stonehenge, it was really cool."

Feliciano: "That's great! ^-^"

Corytha: "What have you been up to?"

Feliciano: "Same as usual, but Germany made me train more today and now I'm really tired Dx"

Corytha: "Aww, are you okay?"

Feliciano: "I'm fine~! He let me make lots of pasta when we were done! :D"

Corytha: "Haha, well that's good."

Feliciano: "What are your friends up to? :o"

Corytha: "They're talking about the meeting in two days, since we're going too apparently."

Feliciano: "Oh yeah, the meeting! I almost forgot about that~"

Corytha: "Yup. They're pretty excited to see everyone and see what happens."

Feliciano: "What about you? :D"

Corytha: "Um, alright I guess. Kind of nervous though…"

Feliciano: "Aww, but why? D: It will be fun!"

Corytha: "I'm not good with large groups of people, really…"

Feliciano: "It'll be fine~! I'm sure they'll be happy to meet you! :D You're really nice!"

Corytha: "/ Thanks. Still going to be nervous though, haha."

Feliciano: "Well we'll just find a way to make you un-nervous~! :D It'll be great!"

Feliciano: "I'm getting kind of sleepy, so I'm going to bed. Ciao, bella~! See you soon! \(^-^)/"

Corytha: "Goodnight! (^-^)/"

She sighed and turned off her phone for the time being as she set it on the nightstand. At first she wasn't aware of the silence in the room until she looked over and found her friends looking at her curiously.

"Who was that?" Sam asked.

"I-Italy texted me," Corytha said, not sure why they were giving her such expressions.

"Oh. Well anyway, we were going to ask you, Cori… are you alright with all of this?"

The blonde tilted her head and furrowed her eyebrows.

"What?"

"What she means is, you've been pretty quiet this entire time," Reagan said with a soft expression. "I mean sure you've spoken up a few times, but mostly you look like you're off in your own world."

Oh. That.

"You know I think a lot," she reasoned quietly. "I'm still trying to get used to this I guess."

"Is there something specific that's bothering you?" Reagan asked.

"...I guess I'm just not too excited about the meeting," she admitted. "You guys are all happy but… I just don't want anything weird to happen, I don't know. You know how they can be in the show…"

"They may be a bit extravagant sometimes, but they wouldn't do anything to hurt us," Sam said. "Look, England is going to work on a way to send us home. We won't be here for that long and they have more important things to do than mess with teenage girls, if that's what you're afraid of."

"Yeah, and besides, most of them are nice," Reagan added. "Nothing bad is going to happen."

"...Can you promise me that?" Corytha asked, fixing them with a steady stare.

"We promise!" they said in unison.

I hope you're right, the blonde thought to herself. She wasn't quite convinced.

On the day of the meeting, the girls tried to pick their nicest outfits out of what they'd bought. England had recommended it to set a good impression, though he'd also said to not worry about looking formal. Sam ended up in dark jeans, a long sleeved white shirt and a black vest. She'd gotten a black flat cap for added pizzazz. Reagan wore white skinny jeans and a green top with criss-crossing straps in the back that read 'If I can't take my book, I'm not going' on the front with an image of glasses on the bottom, along with a floral dark green scarf. The sleeves were long enough that they nearly covered her hands but instead cut off halfway at her palms. Corytha went with maroon skinny jeans and her cream middle-sleeved top that hung loosely around her form. She added a scarf to the mix that had shades of red and brown.

Arthur had purposely waited until they would be one of the last groups inside so that the girls wouldn't be pestered until the end of the meeting. They made their way to the top floor where he told them to sit tight in the waiting room for a while. There was no telling how long they would have to wait there, so they set out as soon as he left to find things to occupy them.

Luckily they'd gotten a few things for their personal enjoyment on the day they'd gone shopping. If they were going to be here for several months, they couldn't spend their lazy days just scrolling about on their phones. Reagan had snagged a few books to read- nearly an entire series because it was on sale- and Sam had manga along with the music on her iphone. After a while she had turned on the television just to see what was on. Corytha had a sketchbook and a pencil and was content to sketch some animals while they waited.

She was in the middle of her fifth sketch- a howling wolf- when one of the doors opened. They all stopped what they were doing and turned to see England and Japan standing there with Germany looking on from behind them in the room.

"It's time, girls."

Quickly they all stuffed their things into Reagan's large satchel and got to their feet. As they approached the door Corytha could feel her heartbeat ready to pop out of her chest from the anxiety- it only stopped climbing when Reagan gripped her hand and squeezed it tightly, giving her a knowing look out of the corner of her eye along with a smile. She tried to return it, but couldn't be certain it showed.

They all stepped into the room where Germany beckoned them over to the head of the table so everyone could see them. The room wasn't quite as daunting as they'd remembered, but it was just as crowded with the personifications of countries. Judging by the papers scattered about the floor that a select few of them were picking up as well as chairs that were turned over, the meeting had progressed in typical Hetalia fashion.

Italy spun over to them quickly and shook each of their hands rapidly, telling them hello about a dozen times. Corytha stared on in frozen shock while Reagan giggled and said it was nice to see him. Sam just glared lightly after a short while and yanked her arm away.

"Italy, go sit down," Germany demanded quietly. The Italian slipped away as if he hadn't just interrupted something and plopped back down in his seat. The people who had been going around straightening the mess were also back to their chairs, so Germany decided to begin.

"As you all may remember, these girls showed up at the last meeting when England's spell went wrong. They are now settled at his house and will be here for at least the next six months. Considering this is an unusual situation, it's been decided that they should be acquainted with everyone here. They already know who we are because in their world, we're a television show, according to Japan. So to not waste time, instead they will just introduce themselves."

He motioned to them so they would take the hint. Reagan lightly gulped, not used to speaking in front of so many people. Sure they'd had projects in school, but even then the presentations were in front of less than twenty people. Good thing she wasn't too shy when it came to meeting new people.

"I'm Reagan Dutois," she said clearly, holding her wrist behind her back with a polite smile. She wasn't sure if there was anything else they were supposed to say, so she looked at Germany and he just shrugged. "Um… we're all 18, and we just finished high school. We're also from America, specifically Colorado."

"Whoo! The Rockies!" America cheered from his seat. Germany glared at him sharply and he grumbled something but stopped anyway.

Reagan lightly smiled then looked at her friends. It was their turn. Sam perked up quickly and folded her arms over her chest, looking around the room with her emerald eyes before clearing her throat.

"Samantha Overby," she stated simply. "But you can just call me Sam."

Both of them- as well as the others in the room who were miraculously still silent- turned their gazes on Corytha. Inside the blonde panicked and lost control of her vocal chords briefly, the anxiety showing clearly on her face.

"I-I… um…" she gulped, holding her elbows as a means of holding herself while she glanced down. "C-Corytha Foster-!"

Sam had jabbed her in the side with her elbow, causing the blonde's voice to rise to where everyone could hear it. Face flushing from embarrassment, she shot Sam an unamused look, to which the redhead only beamed. The blonde huffed lightly but said nothing more. Reagan just giggled.

"There we have it then," Germany said, surprised no one had started talking again yet. Maybe they were all just done with the meeting and wanted to leave. "Are there any questions?"

At first Sam mentally pouted, somewhat disappointed that nothing had been said to them yet. The only one who had even piped up had been America. She supposed maybe Reagan was right, and that them being random humans was probably nothing of interest.

That was until Italy raised his hand.

"Yes, Italy?"
"Ve~ So when can the girls come over to my place~?" he asked innocently. His question sparked a mass debate no one was expecting.

"Hey, if England and Italy get to show them around then they should come spend time with me too!" France challenged.

"It would be lots of fun to have the chicas to my place too! Wouldn't it Romano?" Spain asked with a cheerful expression. The latter looked done with life with his head stuffed into his arms on the table.

"Don't drag me into this, you bastard!"

"They should stop by my place too!"

"No way, my place is way more exciting!"

From there it seems like a trigger was pulled and suddenly a good portion of them were arguing about where the girls should go visit in their brief time here. Any semblance of calm and disinterest were quickly wiped away as the debating escalated, and the girls shuffled off to the side to be out of the way.

"Well that escalated quickly," Sam remarked, looking around in confusion. "They didn't seem to give two shits a few moments ago!"

"That's because I was keeping them in line," Germany said, inserting himself into the conversation. "Even the first time, they did something like this while you were out. I had to convince them it wouldn't be wise to crowd you when you would most likely be confused."

"To be honest, a lot of them were arguing over where you girls should stay. Germany got them to be quiet while I finally said I would take you in, but then they started scolding me. That's when you woke up," England explained. They'd formed their own circle off to the side while the debate continued behind them all.

Sam grinned. "So they DID give two shits about us!"

"One way or another, I suppose," Japan said.

Reagan laughed a bit and glanced around. "I guess that's good? But why does it matter so much? We're just some random teenagers."

"It's not often that we meet girls such as yourselves, especially not under the circumstances of you knowing who we really are," Germany explained. "Most of them would jump at the chance to meet someone new for once and show them around, since we're all well acquainted."

"I guess that makes sense…" she mused, though she was still confused. "But isn't there something against befriending humans?"

Germany glanced between England and Japan before one of them decided to answer her question.

"Due to the fact you girls won't be here forever," England started, "The typical rules we may have regarding humans don't exactly apply."

"Oh, because we won't be around to cause you any pain down the road?" Sam asked, tilting her head.

"Exactly. Though it may still pain us to know that's inevitably how your lives will end, it won't be the same as having to watch you grow old. So most of them are excited at the chance to befriend you for memory's sake."

"Alright, that makes sense," Reagan nodded, finally coming to terms with it. It was almost a relief that their situation was what made them befriendable in the first place. She could understand their unspoken policy about humans though. Being immortal as they practically were, it would be painful to befriend people again and again only to watch them grow old and pass away. After a while it could almost feel like torment. She would be glad to give them a good experience instead.

"Yo! Britain!"

The group finally broke up to see the room full of unspoken anticipation. America was at his feet, sending the Brit a particularly frustrated stare.

"So what's the dealio? Can they visit or not?"

"America… we live in America," Sam said dully. "Of all places to go, yours will definitely not be first."

He pouted at this comment while some of the others snickered triumphantly. Sam glared in their general direction. "And if y'all make this difficult, I will keep tabs on you and we won't visit you either."

They shut up quickly.

"Of course they can visit, you git! I'm not going to confine them to my house," England snapped back. "They can go wherever they want to as far as I'm concerned."

"Great! Then the chicas can come stay at my place for a few days, si?" Spain beamed.

"They could come stay with me for a little while, if they want to, eh…"

"Did someone say something just then?"

While the talking started to break out again, a figure appeared behind the girls and nearly dwarfed them entirely. One hand clapped Reagan on the shoulder while the other met with Sam. It was lucky positioning for Corytha, who would have panicked at the contact. They all froze and glanced over their shoulders.

"They could come stay with me, da?"

Reagan and Sam gave Russia nervous smiles. The tall man was smiling innocently with his eyes closed. They couldn't tell if he had a dark aura or not. Corytha remained still in the center, staring ahead while her friends dealt with the attention.

"Look, I'm sorry to break this to everyone," Sam said suddenly, holding her hands up defensively. "But we've already kinda got plans to visit Italy next week? So if you want to decide where we should go after that, you'll have to figure that out for yourselves."

Since everyone only seemed to continue to argue, Sam face-palmed and dragged a hand down her face. She glared through her fingers and cast a glance to Germany.

"How do you put up with this?" she said in a low voice.

He only shook his head. He wasn't even sure if he did put up with it.

"Wait~! I have an idea!" Italy piped up excitedly with his usual smile. Shockingly the countries stopped only for a moment to see what the idea was, although they probably expected nothing of value.

"Everyone who wants to have them over could put their name into something~! Then we can pull a name out to decide where they go!"

"That's actually not a bad idea. Good job, Italy," Japan commented thoughtfully from the sidelines. "Of course the girls would have to agree with that plan."

Sam shrugged. "Fine by me."

"Same here," Reagan smiled.

Corytha just glanced to her friends then murmured something inaudible, but she seemed to accept it. That was enough.

"Alright then, everyone needs to decide who they want over. Next meeting we will do the draw. Since they only have six months here, their visits will be limited to ten days, and if anything goes wrong they will be sent back to England's house. Is that clear?"

After a unanimous agreement on the minor conditions, the meeting was dismissed and everyone readied themselves to leave. While a few of the countries left, it seemed some of them decided to linger and talk to the girls individually out in the waiting room. Corytha lingered near Reagan as she spoke with Spain and France for a short while. Sam was talking to Germany until America came over and disrupted their conversation. Everything was basically happening in a blur around Corytha as a multitude of people were walking around, snagging refreshments off the counters and talking amongst themselves. At least the attention wasn't focused on them anymore.

Suddenly she felt a light tap on her shoulder and she flinched lightly before turning around. When she saw who it was, any sense of fear she'd previously had nearly disappeared.