A/N: I'm essentially doing the opposite of what I normally do, which is say I'll update in a week or so, then update months later. I'm doing the opposite now, which is so not a good idea, I'm updating faster than writing. Maybe I'm feeling competitive.

Well, anyway. This chapter. I think I should advise reader's discretion, because I touch some topics that might be sensitive. Although, I should remind people that some of these things are from the characters' perspective, and they know only what they know or think they know.

But maybe, people shouldn't get offended so easily, no matter what I say. It's not that bad.

Anyway, forgive grammar mistakes, they happen.

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Chapter 4

Growing Distance

Berlin (UTC +2) 10:13 a.m

Germany blinked, shaking himself out of the sudden spell of absentmindedness.

He rubbed his eyes tiredly, hoping it would disperse the exhaustion. He shook his head and glared at the papers again, soldiering on despite the fact that he's been up for two days now. He would've been up longer, if it were up to him, but it seems his personal limits have been shrinking recently...

'Syrians, Afghans, Iraqis... More than half are men, rest are mostly children, then least women... Why this disparity...?' He shook his head again, no need to be paranoid. He's sure there's a reason, unrelated to the occasional surge of feelings that he was forced to quell. The nagging feeling in the back of his head was something he's gotten fairly used to at this point, but it was just the slightly invasive feeling of illegals walking into his land. Nothing more.

Something inside of him didn't like this, and he hated that.

Germany sighed, pen tapping on the desk. 'They're just people seeking asylum... They're not invaders...' He told himself, once again. Many applied for asylum, but there were still many managing to sneak in, giving Germany that intrusive mental itch.

Everyone deals with illegal immigrants, however, the more there are, the less tolerable it becomes. It just keeps getting worse and worse, but Germany... he wasn't like he used to be, he wouldn't think like this.

Normally, he shouldn't even be dealing with all of this. But the numbers have been going up so steeply, that his government started to ask him to pitch in with all sorts of bureaucratic leeways. He would gladly do so.

He would be... welcoming. Yes, very welcoming. Like a good Nation.

They're running away from a war, they just needed a place to stay. Maybe in the future, some would stay for good and even work, pay taxes, and be productive citizens. Germany exhaled as he stretched his hands and fingers. Yeah, that was the mindset...

Although... it would help if the others pulled their own damn weight a little more... Germany shook his head more harshly. No, no, he couldn't complain like this! The others... he didn't want them to think he was going down the wrong road again – normally he didn't spend this much time thinking of these things, he needed sleep – he didn't need them to 'keep an eye on him'. He's learned his lesson, and thanks to America, he didn't need to fight anymore. He was economically powerful now, and he wouldn't ever let himself go to war again.

Besides, there's no greater restraint than the memory of America and Russia, two frightening powerhouses arguing about what to do with him and his brother after the war, pulling them both apart like pawns while not giving them a choice-

"West?" Great relief, an excuse to stop thinking.

Germany heard his brother calling from somewhere downstairs and looked up from the papers on his desk, suddenly seeing the room he was in with clarity. He didn't even notice his brother was home, even though he should have felt his presence. "Ja?" He called back, getting up from his seat and leaving the room.

His brother lives with him now, but leaves often during the night, to do god knows what. Mind you, he could live somewhere else, but in truth, neither wanted to leave the other, not when the Berlin Wall was taken down not too long ago.

The youngest generation, they no longer remember the event, they weren't there. For them, it was 'a distant event in the past', but for the two brothers, it might as well have been yesterday.

He was lucky his brother was even alive, and Germany would gladly share half of his land to keep it that way.

He heard his brother humming in thought when he walked down the stair, slowing down when feeling a bit of weariness and fatigue. He really needed sleep...

Once reaching the living room, he saw Prussia sprawled on the couch, who glanced at him, red-violet eyes narrowing and lips pursing. "You look exhausted." His tone was wary and concerned, but Germany ignored it.

"When did you get home, Bruder? And... please tell me you weren't sleeping on the couch again...?" He questioned with a tired tone. "Why can't you just use your own bed?"

"It was just five when I got here," Yes, how early. "didn't feel like going upstairs, but never mind that!" Prussia waved his hand dismissively, sitting up and then pointing at the TV with his thumb. "Look what Amerika did this time."

With a suspicious look, Germany sat down beside his brother, focusing on the TV as Prussia raised the volume.

"-should we even be talking about the Nazi-Party then? We barely know what's going on, it wasn't even confirmed anywhere, but a lot of people are already asking if he or whatever still supports it. It's not even-"

"But wait, asking why did he support the Nazi wouldn't be the same as asking why the German people did? It was most likely for the same reasons-"

"Maybe we should figure out what it even is, before going in that direction? I thought they couldn't be classified as a human-"

"I don't think saying 'it' is very appropriate-"

Germany took the remote and lowered the volume, slowly turning to his brother who had laid back down, his tone becoming clipped. "What is this about?"

"Us." Was the frosty response.

He raised an eyebrow. "Us?"

"Yeah, us." Prussia sat up again, gesturing back and forth between them.

Germany's expression slacked as realization hit him like a bomb. "Amerika did- as in...?"

"Yup."

He was nearly gaping now. After a few seconds, he voiced his conclusion. "Did Amerika simply decide to make our lives a living hell...?"

Prussia scoffed, scratching the back of his head and leaning back. "They said it was a 'leak' from his Central Intelligence, but who knows with that guy?"

"What? When?"

"Oh, just now."

The media works quickly... "You really think he did it on purpose...?"

"Who. knows." Prussia repeated tersely.

Germany took a slow, deep breath, eyes wandering aimlessly. His mind jumped ahead in time. How long until they started asking questions? How long until he was blamed for the wars? How long until he was accused of being a murderer, a Nazi, an anti-semitic, everything...?! He gulped, but tried to remain stoic.

With the way Prussia cast a skeptical eye at him, he knew he was failing to do so. He was probably thinking about the same things. "Hasn't your boss called yet?"

Right, he quickly remembered he'd put his phone on mute, just so he could continue working in peace. He took it from his pocket to check. Several missed calls. "Tch... This is the last time I leave it on mute..."

"Ha ha." Gilbert never missed the chance to laugh at someone, but it came out as distracted and unamused, with his eyes focused on the TV. It wasn't like he needed the sound to read their lips and understand what they were saying.

Right when he changed the settings, he searched the Missed Calls list. No Italy. Of course not...

Germany licked his lips in apprehension, but ultimately pressed the Call button. He should-No, he wanted to check. It rang and rang. He was taking an awful long to answer... Germany got up from his seat and was going up the stairs when the call was answered.

"Ciao, Ludwig," Italy used his cover name, so there were humans nearby, overhearing the conversation. Germany frowned. Anyone else would confuse Italy's tone for a pretty neutral one, if not mildly cheerful, but he knew when Italy was being curt.

Germany ignored it. "Italien. Where are you?" He kept his tone serious, walking into his room and closing the door, before sitting behind his desk again.

"At the Mediterranean. Why?" Of course he was in the middle of the sea. He's been in and out of ships scouting around that area for a few weeks now.

He sighed, pushing these thoughts aside. "I don't know if you heard yet, but information regarding our existence is out in the open. I figured you would be out in the sea, so I thought I should check. To make sure..."

This seemed to shake Italy out of his icy mood. "W-what? H-how so? ...No one's looking at me..." His tone had turned rather quiet and hushed, and maybe he was walking away from other people.

"Check online, I don't know if there are pictures or names yet, but for precaution, you should stay away until it's safe."

There was a soft gasp. "But-but we can't just pull back out of nowhere...!" This came as a harsh whisper. "I'm not like you, I can't just abandon people who need help...!"

...Ouch... Germany winced at his words. He nearly told him how he was already bearing more than his share to help, but held his tongue. There was no time for arguing now. "I know, Italien, I know..." Germany tried to be complacent, not wanting Italy to start yelling in a place where he could be easily cornered. "I meant to say you should try and avoid drawing attention to yourself for now. Just call your brother, since he hasn't called you yet. I'm assuming he doesn't know, either."

"Oh... Sì. I'll do that..." And he was back to short answers.

"Ja, take care..." He ended the call with that awkward feeling, as usual these days. Talking with Italy has been such a stressful task for the last couple of months...

The reasons just keep piling on. Refugee Rescue Operations were one recent reason.

Italy had his own plan at first, he was eager to help, and he was rather successful, but he didn't have enough funding to keep going. He was beyond furious when the UN took over the task and yet managed to let so many die in shipwrecks of all things. It is almost as if he thought they were doing it on purpose...

Then his solution was to go personally. No ship carrying a Nation could ever afford to sink, otherwise...

Germany didn't want to think about the political onslaught Italy was capable of when truly and genuinely pissed off – such a rare sight that was – because any Nation could run their mouth completely protected by anonymity, and the things Italy could share with the world weren't exactly legal. Nations knew things that could ruin people, companies, even governments.

Italy couldn't be arrested, though, and he hasn't been happy with his fellows UN members, not for weeks now. Germany didn't want to be in the middle of this feud anymore. At worst, Italy would get other governments to be very discontent with his own for not controlling their Nation.

Especially the American government, who are very strict about Nations running their mouths.

Germany leaned back in his chair, eyes wandering around the ceiling for a second before he looked back at the papers on his desk again. Right, he had a very serious problem to add to his list of other serious problems. He would think about Italy later.

Nations needed to organize, and they needed a plan. Sooner or later, this was bound to blow up in their faces, so they should be ready. They needed to contact everyone as quickly as possible without drawing too much attention, without moving too many Nations around, and without moving too much digital media.

Therefore, it was time to schedule an emergency meeting. The sooner they got this out of the way, the sooner they could go back to the real problems.

A/N: Nations being discovered is only one of many pebbles in everyone's shoes.

Well, I want to point out that Italy's anger is probably a 'cute angry' instead of a 'scary angry', but that doesn't make him any less angry. :D

When you study some history and apply it to Hetalia, it's difficult to not give it that dark edge, and it's especially difficult for me, because I'm a great angst/hurt writer, but despite the fact that I'm trying to keep things realistic, I still want the characters to have that positive aspect that they have in canon, that, uh... brightness. But only a certain amount.

Anyway, points of interest:

The Refugee Crisis in Europe started to escalate near the end of 2014, where things started to go up a lot faster than feasible for Europe to handle. The more you read about it, the more messed up it becomes, but we're getting there. The fic started in May, 2015, and in this year, a lot of bad, bad, bad things happened all over and it'll just get much worse.

This fic is an experiment, of what a world with these beings, Nations, would be like, how would the humans interact with them, how would their lives be like, and how they would feel about each other. I think there would be Nations that get along fairly well, even if their governments don't like each other, or Nations that hate each other, even if their governments get along. They should be their own individual, but still tied to their country and people in a way.

With this in mind, it's worth mentioning that not everything will be EXACTLY like in real life. These characters could change certain events and provide certain insights that can't come from a short-lived human. Not genuinely at least.

At this point, I don't think Italy would be against letting 'refugees' in, and to him, after so many were being lost to the sea, I think he'd been mad at his fellow EU members for letting it happen in the first place. Now he's doing it himself, because no ship with a Nation can afford to have any kind of accident, it needs to be top notch.

Nations are something national, something that is part of that country only, hurting them is like destroying national monuments of great historical importance, or burning the national flag, or hunting its national animal, it should make the government feel bad. So Nations often have freedoms that no human has in the world (as well as restrictions no human has). Another country doing something that hurts another's Nation is like a personal attack. In the old days, it could be seen as a declaration of war.

So then, Italy is angrily scouting the Mediterranian Sea in a big ship. Immediately jumping to help sounds like something he would do out of generosity and altruism alone, which is... sweet. We'll see how long that lasts.

Another point of interest, would be how Germany and Prussia are quick to suspect America... If I start explaining why, this note will be longer than the chapter, heh, so I'll leave that to an actual chapter. One day.

Anyway, I want this fic to reach as many readers as possible, mostly because I have a lot of things I want to say, about many things in the world, but I don't want to rant on a blog, I want it to be encased inside a story worth remembering. So I'll try to keep things as interesting as I can to give you readers a reason to comment/argue with me in anything (without being inflammatory with wild accusations), as well as being worth of a fave or follow. So then, I hope I manage that with each chapter.

Have a great day. o/