The brothers arrived at the conference at their usual time, though Italy Veneziano noticed that something was wrong almost immediately -- the way Germany refused to leave his brother's side and the way Prussia looked as pale as the dead spoke of something deeper than their usual arguments.

"Ve, Germany, Prussia, good afternoon." he greeted, a bit warily. Germany nodded at him, and Prussia gave him a rather wan grin. "Hey, Ita."

Glancing at Germany and seeing the grim look in his eyes, Veneziano wisely chose to sit next to his twin during the meeting. There was something off about them, and he couldn't decided who worried him more.

The other nations were also quite surprised at the lack of 'Awesome' in the moments before the meeting, and though some were truly curious (France and Spain, for example), most just saw it as a gift from the gods and prayed for it to actually last the entire day (that would be the rest of the world).

Austria came in just before America, an odd thing in itself, so he did not witness the oddity on the German side of the table. He also missed Latvia's fainting spell when Russia went past the Baltic brothers without so much as a glance, but the other nations didn't notice it either.

It was as he was listening to yet another of America's ridiculous proposals that he noticed it-- the chirping and snickering that he'd long grown accustomed to was not present. He looked discreetly towards the nations to his far left, passing over the shaken Baltics and an irate Belarus, to a trio he'd never thought to see in broad daylight.

Prussia, looking less than alert and missing a small ball of yellow fluff on his head, sat between his brother and Russia, in what could only be -in Austria's eyes, and in the case of the other two nations- tense silence.

Russia caught his eye, and the unspoken We talk later, da? was answered by more silence. The first half of the meeting passed on in its usual way, and if Prussia dozed in and out several times, no one else knew but the nations on either side of him.

.~*~.~*~.~*~.

England called for a half-hour recess after America's fourth attempt to inject the Transformers into his plans to end the war in the East. A mass exodus of nations occured in five minutes flat, and by the time Canada -the last nation to ever leave the meeting- slunk out of the door, there were only four others left in the room.

Prussia crossed his arms on the table in front of him, and laid his head down on it. His unnaturally quiet voice was muffled, but Germany heard him just fine when he called, "Hey, West...?"

"Yes, brother?" there was a note of urgency in his voice, a desperation Russia had heard only once during their nightly adventures. His violet eyes rested on the Prussian's albino head, and his hand followed suit. Prussia didn't seem to mind this, and continued, "Can I ask for a favor...?"

By this time, Austria was already standing a little to their right, and he heard Prussia's request just as clearly as the other two nations.

"Could you... look for Gil-bird for me?"

The bloodlust in Russia's eyes did not escape Austria, and if he were anymore willing, he would've admitted that it might just have mirrored his own. Germany's face turned grim, but his voice was steady when he inquired, "You're still not feeling well, brother?"

Prussia mumbled in agreement, and two pairs of violet eyes pinned Germany with a questioning gaze.

"She wasn't... at home... thought maybe... she went ahead... might be teasing... Greece's cats..."

The albino raised his head at this, and turned to look at his brother. His eyes were glassy, and his voice was laced with the pain of jackhammers in one's brain when he spoke. "West?"

Germany smiled, almost kindly if not for the hatred and malice dancing behind his eyes, and nodded. "I will. You stay here and rest, alright? Russia will look after you."

Looking to his left, Prussia let out a small 'oh' of surprise when he saw Ivan. A tiny smile worked its way onto his lips, before his head fell sideways to his arms. "Hey." Russia returned this barely audible greeting with a slow smile, his hand patting Gilbet's head gently.

Germany glanced at Austria and nodded, a variation of that eternally damning promise, We'll talk about this later. He left without a sound, and the hall was silent once again.

This did not last for long as, after holding a fruitless staring contest with the top of Russia's head, Austria decided that he had had enough.

"Bieldschmidt... can I ask you something?"

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caesura

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Author's Notes: Roddie, NUUUU!! *flails* ... Yep, that's the way I react to this chapter every time I look at it. Not to psyche you good reviewers out, but... CODE RED, CODE RED: The s*'s about to hit the fan, I REPEAT, the S* IS ABOUT TO HIT THE FAN. I can only hope I aimed it well and it collided okay. ^^;;

Randomnity: (because I MUST share this~) I've just fulfiled one of my dreams! I was a (mini)secretary yesterday for a couple of hours~ And, yeah, that's a dream of mine. 8D

Next chapter will be on March22, and it'll most like be a double update. My finals have arriveth. o____o Bear with me, good people!