Alfred leapt from the car as soon as it had pulled to a stop inside United Nations Square. He quickly began to stretch his long limbs in every possible direction. Arthur quietly thanked the stone faced driver; the man drove away as fast as he could the second Arthur had exited the car. He hadn't even been about to shut the door properly.

"Prick." Arthur muttered under his breathe; no one heard him. He straightened his back, several vertebrae clicked, and he stepped on to the side walk. He didn't want to get in to another car again for a long time. He glanced at his traveling companion, he was taking deep breathes of the dirty New York air. And suddenly he took off running in the opposite direction that they were supposed to go. If Alfred didn't do thin every time they were in New York for a meeting Arthur would have screamed bloody murder and darted after him. But by now it had become a tradition, Arthur slowly walked through the large double doors, flashing his ID card without a moments delay. He could sense other nations around somewhere…. He stalked over to the elevator; his old body was still stiff. "Oh! Fuck wank bugger shitting arse head and hole!*" no matter how much he deigned it, he was old. He had lived a long life. He rubbed the back of his neck rolling his head around with his eyes closed. He listened to the generic elevator music as he waited for his floor. He was absolutely craving a cup of tea, thank god for Alfreds 'international food' idea. Really it was a buffet with all kinds of random foods brought by the countries themselves. THe British part consisted of only tea and various meat pies dubbed 'Sweeney Pies' by America. The dolt. With a ding the elevator doors opened, he walked towards the voices of his fellow Europeans. He entered the small ballroom, as usual the large buffet tables off to the right held the food, the ones off to the left help the drinks. The others had not noticed Arthur yet, or had chosen to ignore him. Arthur poured him self a cup of tea and headed to one of the tables, where some nations seemed to be playing some card game, chatting happily.

"Hey hey, Germany! Whats' this mean? Is this good?" came an airy Italian voice.

"Italy! Don't show me your cards!" came a German voice; he couldn't hide the laugh nor suppress the smile on his face.

"Veh~ I'm sorry. But is it good?"

"Yes Italy. It is good."

"Morning gents." England stood besides Germany," mind if I join the next round?"

"Certainly." Germany smiled.

'Well he's in a good mood.' England thought 'for now.' he sighed inwardly, pulling up a chair. Hey did this every meeting. In a few seconds Italy would-

"Germany! I don't get this! Let's play something I know!" Italy wined.

"You're so lame! I'm ashamed to be your brother, you wouldn't last a minute in Sicily! I Bet…" south Italy continued to rant, his voice blocked out by the other Nations at the table.

"How about snap then?" England suggested, just like always.

"Si! I like that game!" if Italy was in, so was Germany, and that meant everyone else was in. he glanced around the table. Germany, both Italies, Spain, turkey, Hungary, Holland, and Belgium. The same people as always. Wasn't France here somewhere? Arthur quickly looked around. No France. Safe. Germany stared shuffling the cards. Arthur felt a pressure in his lower stomach.

"Excuse me, need to visit the loo. Start with out me; I'll join in on the next."

"Have fun!" yelled Italy. Arthur snorted and stalked over to the rest room. Curse his small bladder. Time for some rain. After he had relieved himself, he strided over to the sinks, he heard a grunt come from the large stall at the end of the bathroom, followed by a flush. He stared blankly, he thought he was alone. Them he heard movement, a rolling sound, the door swung open, and out rolled Gilbert, the former great kingdom of Prussia, in his black, white, and blue wheel chair. It was no surprise to see him like this; he had been this way since November 9, 1989.

"Hello there Prussia." England smiled at him, a small guilty feeling in his chest. He swallowed it.

"Hallo there Arthur! 'ow you been!" he smiled rolling over to the sink to wash his hands. He only looked in to the large mirror for a second, looking longingly at the top of his head, and then to his hands, quickly drying them on his pants.

"Very well, yourself? You look quite well."

"Don't fucking feel it." he smiled. "Have you seen my little Germany out there! He's teaching them all card games! Hes so smart…. My little brother." Prussia's face took on a glazed look," he so strong now."

England sighed," come play cards with us?," Gilbert nodded and Arthur took hold of his chair and rolled him out of the restroom.

"Hey Weston! Deal me in!" Prussia cried across the room. Germany quietly gathered the cards and reshuffled them. The others looked quite peeved; they hadn't finished their game yet.

Arthur and Prussia joined them; England placed Prussia between Germany and himself.

Spain spoke up. "It's good for you to have finally joined us, amigo." a smirk crossing his dashing face.

"It was awesome of me wasn't it?" Gilbert smirked "you, me, and the faggot! Lets go out after!"

"Si, of course." smirked Antonio.

"I just need to put liebling to bed first." he smiled. He meant it.

"brother…,"germany began,"… not to early." he bit his lip and smiled. Before he could deal the cards the doors burst open. The smell of hotdogs filled the already aroma filled room.

"Never fear the hero is here!," oh lord help us. America leapt into the room, two wrapped hotdogs in one hand half of one in the other, a soda bottle pinched in his elbow joint, mustard covered his lower face. He was covered in random 'I LOVE N.Y.' paraphernalia. "What we all up to homies!,"he smiled brightly.

'Bullocks.' Arthur thought, gulping down the rest of his tea. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of smokes, lighting up. He was going to need more than tea to calm his nerves.

More and more nations had arrived over the day, most didn't even bother to show up to the ball room, they stayed in their respective groups. England could feel a storm coming, in his bones he knew. The tension in the air was almost unbearable.

At first America had joined in on their simple game, after flittering around visiting (or bothering) the others in the room. The card table had been filled with even louder laughter and playful teasing. And as usual the others indulged in gilberts fawning over his 'baby brother'. The poor man. England pitied him and it scared Arthur more than anything. While they had taken different paths and made different choices, he saw a lot of himself in Prussia. Would he end up like him? In a wheel chair, no citizens, only a small organization and an idea to hold him to the earth? Arthur didn't want to try to think of what had happened t him while he was under Russians gaze. He had returned to his brother dragging himself over the downed wall, his fingernails torn out of his fingers, covered in blood, body impossibly mangled. He however has no memory of what had just happened. After he had been nursed back to stability by Germany. He seemed to have reverted back to a simpler time in his mind. It was odd, his way of thinking. England had to wonder how he saw the world. Around him, or id he just accepted it. Poor Germany had to put up with being treated like a child by his brother. Having to be put o bed and tucked in, having stories read to him, Prussia coming in to check on him at all hours of the night. Prussia even tries to arrange play dates for Germany with other nations he remembered being small. England did however enjoy when Prussia would every now and then pull a sword on him. Again, even though he deigned it, England would do anything to be a pirate again.

Soon after Israel arrived, receiving a warm hug from America. Things got interesting. Greece showed up, the poor dear, he was sniffing and coughing and almost completely out of it. Feliciano had rushed over to him and led him to his room then a large group of Middle Eastern countries arrived one of which was Pakistan. America had jumped on top of his chair yelling and jeering cures and other expletives, bragging about Bin Laden and how he had cried not to be shot and how he had pissed himself when America had splattered his brains all over the wall, twice. Germany quickly pulled the raging superpower down to the floor. After that things only got better. France started acting up. He had been wondering around the New York fashion walks and had returned to see if 'Angleterre' had arrived. Canada had appeared, and as usual, remained unnoticed until he went and forcefully, greeted his fellow G8 members, all of who were present with the exception of Russia and Japan. But soon after America started to tease him about the recent Stanley Cup finals and if he had fun destroying Vancouver.

As soon as china arrives he started insulting America and telling him about how much fun he had watching Americas credit drop. America had responded with threats of a nuclear war. Yao had only chuckled and informed America that he had his own nukes. Soon the argument reverted to more childish insults. Alfred tried suggesting Yao open his eyes, yao dared Alfred to lose weight, then Alfred asked Yao,"are you sure your not really a chick? 'cause 'yo dick is fucking small as shit! I'm sure it's hard to tell! Especially with yer' eyes all closed like that!" at that comment china seemed to snap and he attacked Alfred by quickly flipping him in the air over his shoulder and slamming him into the ground, Alfred responded by pulling a gun out of his jacket and firing a warning shot at china, the bullet lodged itself somewhere in the wall far behind. At that moment Germany, England and Canada jumped into the fight separating them; Matthew held Alfred, Ludwig and Arthur held back Yao. Who was escorted out. America soon left claiming to take a walk. The whole room seemed extremely awkward and silent after that and soon everyone started leaving, it was going to be a big day tomorrow, most just had no idea how big.

Arthur stepped out of his bathroom, a tooth brush in his mouth, he walked out onto the balcony. He saw America sitting dangerously on the railing of the room next to his own. A half burned cigarette hanging in his mouth a pike of still smoking butts on the floor behind him.

"Alfred? Lad? Would you mind getting down from there."

"Yeah sure." Alfred silently complied. Slowly lowering himself onto a chair behind him. Arthur felt a bit more relaxed. There was a silence. Then Alfred spoke up. "What have I done Arthur?"

"What? What are you-?"

"Look at them all…"Alfred muttered, flicking his used smoke over the railing. Arthur looked out towards the city sky line. All he saw was burning. Buy he didn't know what city he was in. he saw Big Ben, he saw the Eiffel tower, he saw the Kremlin building, he saw the white house, he saw everything, all black and burned. He turned to Alfred, to see the ban burning. Fire was covering him.

"Alfred!" Arthur screamed. Alfred seemed unaffected. He sang.

"And Los Angeles is burning! ~"

Arthur shot up, awake, covered in sweat. He was shaking. He turned to the clock slowly. Time to get ready for the meeting. He switched off the alarm clock which was loudly playing a Pennywise song. He sighed and buried his face in his hands. Giving himself a second. He breathed slowly. Then he got up, ready to face the future.

* my fave quote from the british movie Love Actully…. Not so crazy about the movie…. But I just love the things this character says!