Once again, England found himself dragged into the 'school' and forced to sit through lessons. Mr Vargas said they would let him off with a warning this time, but if this continued then they could be forced to have him excluded. England hoped he was imagining the more menacing double meaning in those words.

Going through this as if nothing had happened was harder than initially thought. He found himself staring at everyone, having to quickly look away if one of the other students caught his gaze. It was almost impossible to believe they were all programmed... Almost. With a few of the more 'minor' students, the ones he had paid barely any attention to as he didn't recognise them, he was beginning to notice a few problems. Some moved in ways that seemed almost rehearsed, occasionally repeating actions or phrases that had only been said a few seconds ago. He had even noticed a few students shared the same face. Though England wouldn't have noticed these if he hadn't been paying attention, it was obvious there were mistakes in this simulation.

He could only wonder how this was all possible. Everyone based on a country acted almost exactly like their original counterpart. Only Alfred was different, but that wasn't obvious from his interactions with everyone else. He was pretending nothing had changed at all; was this for his own sake or for England's?

At some point during break he found himself talking to Kiku again. The Japanese boy did not look very happy.

"Is it true you and Alfred-san were truanting?" he asked, his frown only deepening when England nodded. "I can understand Alfred-san, but why would you do something like that, Arthur-san?"

"I... It's hard to explain," was the only thing England could say. "I didn't really want to; Alfred just dragged me along."

"But, surely you didn't have to go with him?"

England sighed. This conversation was starting to get annoying. "Like I said, it's hard to explain. Forget about it—it doesn't matter."

This had sounded a little harsher than he meant, and Kiku's eyes widened in alarm before he apologised and retreated to some other part of the hallway. England thought about saying sorry, but a bitter feeling and his own stubbornness stopped him. What was the point?

A sort of worry had begun ebbing away at his patience ever since his conversation with Alfred, making him more snappy with anyone who tried to talk to him. He didn't know what he would do if he had to face Francis again. With the realisation he was a prisoner at his unknown kidnapper's mercy, the fact he was still sane surprised England. After all, they had managed to alter his memories before; surely, once they realised England did, in fact, remember who he was, they would be able to do it again. It was only a matter of time.

That last thought was what really worried England. Unless he could find a way to escape, it was only a matter of time before they caught on to his different behaviour. Then they would start playing with his mind again, making him blissfully unaware he was being held captive.

What could he do?

Thankfully, the day passed without event. He had trouble completing some of the work, though with his current situation England decided he had a reasonable excuse. He was currently walking back to his 'room' with Alfred, who had met up with him at the end of the day. The American was nattering away about the most random things, and England had long since tuned him out. All he had to do was nod once or twice to pretend he was listening.

"You know, Kiku seemed a bit upset today," he suddenly heard. "Did you two have an argument?"

"I may have snapped at him," England said after some thought, "but I don't see why he should be 'upset' about that."

"Well, you never usually yell at him. He was probably surprised or something." Something changed in the way Alfred looked at him. "You should be careful about things like that, Artie."

England mumbled a curt 'I understand' and Alfred reverted back to his happy, almost idiotic self. The message was clear—if you keep doing things like that then you'll only draw attention to yourself.

His room was reached and England was left alone, Alfred only giving him a short wave and a grin before closing the door. Somehow, the small bedroom seemed even more confining.

Honestly... England gave an irritated sigh. What am I supposed to do?

Even when he appeared to be alone he couldn't do much. If Alfred's warnings were true then he was definitely being watched. His safest course of action would probably be to go to sleep.

After changing into some pyjamas and flopping down on his bed, England started wondering about his home and everyone else there. Did they know he was gone? Were they looking for him? Even with all the enemies he made over the years, he doubted the rest of the world or his government would just decide there was no point in trying to find him-there was too much paperwork for that.

For the next few minutes England went over everything he knew. However, he obviously wouldn't be able to come up with a good solution to his problem at the moment, and a rather weary sadness took over. I'll think of something in the morning, he told himself, but this did nothing to lift his mood.

As he drifted off, one last thought rose to the top of his mind.

When the—... their guardians—...

This thought meant nothing to England. He tried to decipher it for only a few seconds before dismissing it as sleep deprived gibberish and allowing himself to fall asleep.

-Chapter end.

Wow, it has been a LONG time since I last updated this O_O Sorry DX Personally, I think there's only a few chapters left of this story… I guess that's good for me, since it'd mean I have less fanfics to work on? ^^'

Well, please review and tell me what you think ^_^