"Mattie!" America shouted as he rushed down the stairs to the kitchen in his pajamas, grabbing his own shirt in one hand and the staircase railing in the other, looking rather flustered. "What happened to waking me up?"

"Good morning to you too, America. Happy birthday!" Canada congratulated, becoming the first to greet his brother.

"Dude! That's not the point here! I'm late!" America exclaimed as he took the toast Canada offered and wolfed it down in 2 bites.

"Late? For what? Is it important?" Canada asked, rather puzzled. Not a lot of things could push his brother's panic button.

"Life and death. I've thought about it yesterday, and as a hero, I cannot let this rest without giving a fight!" America ended his short but inspiring speech with a heroic pose as Canada passed him a glass of milk to wash the toast down.

"So you're going to find England?" Canada asked with a smile, glad to know that his brother's finally trying to make a difference.

"Yup! England's never even looked at the card before sending it back to me with the envelop still in tact, so this time, i'll bring the invitation to him personally. He's gonna have to look at it!" America told Canada of his plan, sounding extra confident.

"Then you better hurry up before England decides to go on his daily walk." Canada looked up at the clock hung on the kitchen's wall, then at America again.

"Oh shit! I almost forgot! Wish me luck!" America threw Canada another one of his signature grin and charged out of the house like a bull seeing red.

"All the best brother! Remember to come back on time for the party!" Canada shouted out as he lost sight of America.

"Got it! 3 pm right? A hero can't miss his own party!" America's loud voice answered, followed by the starting sound of his car's engine. It's a great thing that the countries just had an meeting conducted by America, most of them were still staying in hotels, waiting to celebrate America's birthday before heading home.

"That's what you always say before dashing in from the front door 30 minutes after things had started." Canada sighed and shrugged. Ah well, he's got other things to worry about, such as the party food.

"Good afternoon sir, may I help you?" the man behind the hotel's counter asked with a professional smile.

"Yes, I would like to speak to Mr Arthur Kirkland. He lives in the VIP suit on the 20th floor." America replied, being careful to use England's human name for better understanding. Normal people would think he's crazy if he's trying to find 'England' in a hotel. Then he would just be asked to leave the hotel by the security guards in a 'nice' manner.

"Mr Kirkland is it? May I please know your name sir?" the man asked as he picked up the phone on his desk.

"Tell him that someone called Alfred won't leave unless he's willing to talk to him and listen to what he's got to say." America instructed as the man simply nodded and moved on with the call.

While waiting for the call to get through, America fidgeted with his fingers as he ran the whole procedure of talking to England in his mind again, afraid that he would mess up somewhere. He always did.

"I'm sorry sir, but it seems that Mr Kirkland is not in at the moment, he did call this morning to have us deliver the breakfast to him earlier than usual." The man explained with an apologetic tone.

"Oh... Alright. Do you by any chance know where he might have gone to?" America felt both relieved and upset to know that he had missed England. At least he wouldn't have to worry about messing up. But where could he be?

"I'm sorry sir, I'm afraid that I have no idea." The man's reply was yet another disappointing one.

"It's alright, I'll just have to find him by luck. Thanks." America gave the man a nod and a wave before leaving the hotel. Alright, plan B. He needed a plan B.

It wasn't hard coming up with one, England's not at home, and from the years of experience, that guy didn't quite like wandering about in an unfamiliar place. If that's the case, then he shouldn't be far from the hotel. America's frown eased into a slight grin with that thought. Tracking someone who's always in a extremely formal suit, a head of messy pale blonde hair and thick eyebrows can never be harder than finding a fast food restaurant in his place.

Then again, England wasn't exactly unfamiliar with America's place...But America decided to ignore that detail and went straight to the park beside the hotel, starting his search there.

The park was around the size of 2 football fields, but since the lake at the center of the park took up half the area, all America really had to cover was around the area of 1 football field. The place was filled with parents who brought their kids out to play and all sorts of sports and activities were going on. Football, Frisbee, kite flying, rope skipping... You name it.

America can't help but feel nostalgic as he watched a father teach his son to play football. The father had such a kind and loving gaze at the son, who's smiling with all his heart. It was all too familiar, all too hard for him to not remember his own childhood. To the young him, England was his everything, and he loved England very much. He could feel that England loved him as much- no, he was sure that England loved him more than anything in the world.

"Looks like he's not here." America said it out aloud, trying to distract himself from that thought. It would just make him feel more guilty than usual. he didn't need that now, not on his birthday.

As he walked out of the park, feeling a little down after all the memories, America pondered over where England would go next. Since England loved books, the library would be a great choice. Then again, supposed that you were reminded of the day when someone dear to you 'betrayed' you and left you crying in the rain, you would and should be so upset that you can't bother to read a word. Maybe he should give the pub a try...

America looked down at his watched and found it an hour to 3. The library is east of the hotel and the pub to the west, he's only got enough time to cover one place. A fifty percent chance of finding England and hopefully bring him to his birthday party could also mean a fifty percent chance of him finding nothing and having to spend this year's birthday like all the other ones. He couldn't take the risk of that, can he?

"I'll just have to hurry up and cover both places." America told himself as he pulled his bomber jacket on a little tighter and with the count of three in his mind, dashed for the library first.

Canada looked up at the clock on the wall, 4 o' clock.

All the guests were here and all the food and decorations were ready an hour ago, so where's his brother?

He picked the house phone up and called America's cell phone again, only to get directed to the voice mail for the 5th time. Didn't he tell his brother to be on time? Why is it that America never listens to him?

"He's still not picking up?" France asked as he entered the kitchen and stood beside Canada.

"I don't think he's got his phone with him at all. He left in a hurry after all." Canada sighed. Some day, he swore, some day he's gonna glue his brother's phone to the jacket. There's no way he can forget it that way.

"We can't start the party without him, can we?" France asked as Canada shook his head

"It's his party after all." Canada shrugged.

"Mon Dieu, if England would just agree to come in the first place." France shook his head in dismay, he had a pretty good idea how stubborn that eyebrows can be.

"It's not England's fault. If I put myself in his shoes, I won't want to come too. It would be like celebrating the day you've lost the one person who's probably the most important person in your life. It must be very painful." Canada suddenly said.

"Isn't America sad too? The happiest day of the year, that one day when you are definitely special, is also the day you saw the person who you loved break down before you." France replied and flipped his hair to the side.

"If only they can both see each other's pain." Canada sighed.

"From the looks of things, that day is still far away." France nodded.

Just as they were about to drift into another discussion about how small decisions could make all the difference in the world, the door bell rang. Both looked up with bright eyes and dashed for the door with one thing in mind.

They could finally start the party.

America trudged down the empty street that would lead to his house, both disappointed and worried. He couldn't find England in the library nor the pub, which was not a good thing. What if he's hiding somewhere and crying over the whole thing again? What if he got wasted and was running about in his loin cloth? What if he's being put in jail for that? Oh god, the possibilities were infinite.

Then, it was the fact that he was late for his own birthday party. It's 4.30 pm on his watch now and he's officially 1 hour and 30 minutes late for the party. His own party that Canada's been busy planning for weeks. Speaking of which, wasn't Canada's birthday just a few days ago? Why wasn't there a celebration? Did he even wish his brother a 'happy birthday'? Or did he just forgot about it since he was too busy sending invitation cards to everyone?

Till this point, America felt like such a horrible brother.

Reaching his house, America stood in front of the wooden door and pondered over what he should do. Sure it's his party and knowing Mattie, he won't start the party unless his brother's present. God the guests must be freaking impatient by now. So he didn't really have much of a choice other than to go in and maybe have a tomato or two being thrown at him by one of the few hot tempered guests...

"..." America placed his hand on the door knob and took a deep breath, he readied himself and opened the door, "Mattie! I'm back!"

The moment the door was opened, America had to quickly duck down to miss the tomato that was flying at him. He was right after all, some guests were just not that patient.

"Goddammit! It's about time you decide to show up! What kind of idiot are you? Being late for your own party?" Romano scolded as he tossed another tomato at America.

"Now now Roma~, we're all worried about him too. Why don't you let him in first?" Spain hugged Romano from the back and started dragging him away from America, who was rather... Stunned.

"Fucking hell! let go of me you freaking tomato bastard! Why the heck would I worry about a hamburger idiot? I'm just freaking bored of waiting for him to come back!" Romano snapped as he struggled to get free from Spain's hug, though impossible.

"Happy birthday, America Kun! May this year's celebration be a special one." Japan greeted with a warm smile. Beside him, Germany simply nodded at America and tossed him a wrapped present.

"Thanks Japan and Germany! I'm not so sure about the special part, but I'm sure glad you guys came!" America laughed.

"Ve~~ happy birthday America! I wanted to buy you the book of atmosphere as a birthday present, but i can never find it." Italy popped up from behind Germany, also holding a rectangular and wrapped present in his hand. "So Japan and I decided to get you some computer games instead!" he smiled.

"Dude! That's totally awesome! Thanks alot!" America gave Italy a hi 5, "Don't worry about the book, we'll find it some day!" he grinned while the other countries besides Italy felt a sweat droplet trickle down their back.

"Brother! You're finally back! Where have you been?" This time was Canada, look extremely relieved to see his brother back in one piece.

"Ahaha... Sorry for making you worry Mattie, I kind of wandered around..." America laughed sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head. Canada simply answered with an understanding smile, he was pretty sure of what his brother was actually doing.

"Why don't we all move into the living room first aru? We are already late, so let's get the party started." China suggested as the others nodded.

"Non, non! That won't do!" France shook his head in disagreement as every directed their attention to him, some filled with rage and hunger. "America has to do one more thing before he can start the party, remember?" France reminded as a sense of realization hit everyone, except America of course.

"Hmm? What? Do I have to do the laundry or something?" America asked, puzzled.

"Non~! Big brother is too romantic to make you do something like that!" France winked and sent shivers down several countries' spine.

"hmhmm~ America, all of us here each have a flower with us, da." Russia smiled as he held up a stalk of rose plant with one yellow rose bud in his hand.

"All of us except me of course." Canada said as he lifted his hand to eye level. In it was a tall and milky white vase with a broad base and neck but a narrow body. The vase was filled with some water.

"... Please tell me that's not your present for me. I'm horrible with plants." America's looking quite troubled.

"Kesesese, you can always use it as a cup!" Prussia laughed while Germany facepalms and Hungary hit his head with her good old fry pan, enough hint for him to keep quiet and if possible, sensible

"You put the flowers in them." Ice said as he placed his stalk of yellow rose bud into the vase, followed by the other Nordics. That's 5 rose buds in total.

"We'll start the party when you've collected all 30 roses, so please do you best!" Belgium smiled as she walked up to America with Netherlands, Spain and Romano. All four of them inserted their stalks of rose buds into the vase.

Next up were the G8 members, well, excluding England, Canada who gave him the glass, and himself. That was another 5 down. America was then told that some of the countries were hiding in the house itself and it's his duty to find them and get the 's what he did. He found the Asians on the second level, and got the roses from China, Hong Kong , Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand.

Finding Belarus was easy, All America had to do was shout that Russia sucked and Belarus immediately appeared in front of him with a knife in her hand. After some persuading for her to put her weapon down and promising to never talk bad about her brother again (Well... At least not aloud and not in front of her), Belarus finally unwillingly handed him the rose bud, which was surprisingly pink and not yellow like the others.

Ukraine was ... trying her best to hide, but ended up stuck under the bed and couldn't come out when America found her. They had a little game of tug-of-war with the bed before America was finally about to pull the already crying Ukraine out from under the bed and advised her to never do it again. Ukraine was happy to give America her rose bud which was pink, just like her younger sister's. That's another two down.

America was a little surprised to see Austria wandering around on the third level and learnt that he got lost while trying to get back to Hungary in the kitchen, which was located at the first floor. Being able to lose his way in a house really took skills. He brought Austria to Hungary (who was busy killing some awesome guy in the kitchen with her pan) and received a white rose bud from each of them, including Prussia.

Poland got bored of hiding and simply dragged Lithuania out of their hiding spot and approached America. Poland's rose bud was baby pink and Lithuania's rose bud was a nice dark pink. Following Lithuania were Estonia and Latvia, darting their eyes around to look out for Russia as they gave America the 2 white rose buds.

Twenty eight roses so far, so there's only 2 more roses to go. America looked at the list of guests Canada gave him before the rose hunt, trying to identify the last two countries. He's put a little cross beside the names of the ones who he's already met, and the only one without a cross was... Sealand.

Great, the one who's extremely good at hiding. This should be fun.

America looked high and low and walked up and down the house for 3 times, checking every closet and dark corners that looked like it could be a hiding place. But the attempt ended in vain and he still couldn't locate the usually loud and easy to spot little fella.

Then, an idea hit him as America rushed to the second level's walkway, where people could easily hear him if he were to shout. He took a deep breath and shouted, "Sealand! If you come out right now, I'll recognize you as a country!"

That did the trick and as his voice trialed off, a thump came from the laundry room upstairs, followed by some frantic foot steps.

"Sealand is here desu yo! Now you'll have to admit that I'm a country!" Sealand cheered happily.

"Dude! Where were you hiding? I've searched the laundry room for at least 5 times!" America asked.

"Haha~ Sealand is too smart for you desu yo! I was hiding in the washing machine!" Sealand laughed proudly as he passed America his rose bud, a regular yellow one.

That was it, all the names on the list had the small cross beside them and his vase was now filled with 29 rose buds of yellow, white and different shades of pink. Didn't Belgium say it was 30 roses? America thought about it for a while and simply shrugged as he walked off to the kitchen to find Canada. It's probably a error in counting, the list don't lie.

"What do you mean I can't start the party yet?" America was getting a little annoyed at France's answer.

"You have to find 30 roses, mon ami." France repeated the instruction.

"But there's only 29 people's name on the list!" America showed France the list and pointed at the row of crosses beside the names. "And I'm sure that I've met every one of them!"

"Not everyone." Canada smiled happily as he grabbed America's hand and started walking to the small garden in the backyard. "Come on, I'll bring you to the last person."

America may be blur at times, but from the way Canada was smiling, he knew that something was about to happen, something good. He started guessing who the last person may be, but the only answer he could actually think of was England. He then remembered about what Japan said when he first entered the house. A special celebration huh..?

Canada stopped right in front of the door that led to the back yard and let go of his hand. He turned around looked at his brother in the eyes, "May this be the best birthday ever." With that, he opened the door and without giving America a chance to react, pushed him into the backyard. America, still holding on to the vase of 29 roses, stared at the scenery in front of him and waited for something to happen.

It was then when he heard music.

Someone was playing a really soothing melody on a violin, a familiar melody that he's almost forgotten. America found himself drawn to the music as he started walking, following the source of the music to a more secluded part of the backyard's garden. Brushing a tree's branches aside, America couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the violin player.

Under the the garden's oak tree was a male with a head of pale blonde hair. He had thick eyebrows and his eyes were closed as he played with all his heart. A breeze came by, ruffling his hair and the corners of his shirt while a few leaves left its branch and flew past him.

The last person was none other than England.

For a few moments, America just stood there as he watched England play the violin. When England had finally finished with the melody, he opened his eyes and looked up at America as if he's been expecting him for quite a while now.

"You sure took your bloody time." England placed the violin on a wooden bench beside him.

"Sorry, I didn't think that you would be waiting for me here." America smiled apologetically. "You're still darn good with the violin i see."

"Is it? I haven't played it after you left me." England simply smiled, "That's the last song I've taught you before you've decided to drop the instrument along with me."

"..." So he's still upset about that little war of theirs. "Look England, I-"

"I'm not going to blame you."

"...Huh?"

"I said, I'm not going to blame you. At least not to day." He picked up the stalk of rose on the bench and walked up to America, "They don't call it history for nothing you know." He smiled mysteriously as he put the red rose into the vase. The only rose that was blooming.

"So you've forgiven me for that?" A hope lit up in America's heart as it was reflected in his elated expression.

"I've never blamed you in the first place, idiot." England leaned closer to America and gently kissed him on the cheek. "So stop blaming yourself and enjoy the only day when you're special"

America couldn't care to think and simply pulled England into an embrace.

"The hero's always special, no matter when!" America's so touched he's almost crying, but managed to ruin the moment anyway.

"De- Read the atmosphere! You idiot!" England rolled his eyes at America's bluntness. That's all this idiot's got to say? Did he really have a hamburger for a brain?

"But a hero can only be special, if he has someone to protect." America broke the hug, looked into England's emerald green eyes and smiled warmly. "Thank you for being that person."

England felt his face flush red as he looked away. "W-whatever." He muttered, looking at the ground.

"Happy birthday, you git."

Yellow rose: Friendship

Pink rose: Appreciation

White rose: Youthfulness

Dark pink rose: Gratitude/ Appreciation

Blooming red rose: 'I love you'

Omg it's finally done! Q~Q

I was so caught up in writing this that I couldn't finish this by his birthday TT^TT

I'M SORRY! AMERICA! /bows

Anyway, this is part 2/3 of the birthday special. Part 3 is an omake and it covers some details not covered in this chapter.

I had fun writing this, especially the rose hunt. I wonder if America's noticed what England's rose for him meant XD Ah well~ will upload part 3 as soon as possible~!