"You didn't need to go and talk to Germany about me." Austria eyed the smaller nation incredulously. He blushed for a moment; then regained his composure. "I know that that's why you were at his house the other day. You looked really angry. H-he doesn't need you to yell at him. Not on my behalf, anyway."

"Indeed not," Austria cheerfully agreed. "That's why I wasn't seeing him about you." 'I don't care how often they say a lie by omission is still a lie. I can't resist it.' Latvia didn't look particularly convinced. "If you absolutely must know, I was seeing him about some family business." 'There. That should be enough truth to satisfy Latvia and Emily Post.'

"Family business." 'Or not.'

"Yes. There were some things Prussia and I had to clear up." At the sound of "Prussia," there was a bang from the kitchen. Both nations jumped slightly in their chairs.

Austria was the first to recover, abashedly dabbing at his sweaty face with a handkerchief. "I'm so sorry. I have no idea what that was. I should go check…" He rose, but Latvia was quicker, as if he sensed a secret. He hurriedly got to his feet, muttering something about "checking on the food," and raced to the kitchen door, teacup still in hand. Said teacup remained from Austria's empire days, and as such was worth well over €100. He did not appreciate seeing it smash to the ground. (To Latvia's credit, once he recovered from the initial shock, he was duly contrite.)

The cup was ignored in favor of the pale figure shakily cleaning up the equally pale fragments of another broken piece. ('My best china, too,' Austria thought crossly. 'I'm having the worst of luck today.')

"P-Prussia?" stuttered the diminutive Baltic disbelievingly. Prussia looked as though he couldn't believe it, either, and he recovered from his mortification for long enough to give Austria a long, aggrieved look. In a flash, his focus was back on Latvia. Then, all at once, he smiled, showing rows of straight white teeth. He stood up and laughed expansively, reaching forward to put one hand on the newcomer's shoulder.

"Sorry if I startled you, but you know how it is. It's hard for a country as awesome as I am to skulk around, especially in a cramped little house like this." Austria was somewhat surprised that he could still find it within himself to bristle, but bristle he did.

Prussia ignored him, leaning in closer to examine Latvia. "You're one of those Baltics, right? The ones he's seeing every week."

"Y-yes." Latvia held out his hand for a painfully vigorous pumping. "I-it's Latvia," he added when he realized no further questions were forthcoming.

Sure enough, Prussia had already seemed to lose interest in him. He backed off of his brother's patient to survey the tea service. "Man, you do not look happy," he joked at the scowling brunette. "Is it because the little guy – Lativa, right? – broke your fancy cup?"

That was when Latvia noticed the shards of porcelain on the floor around him. "OhmyGodI'msosorryI'llpaytohaveitreplacedifitisn'tanheirloom – it'sanheirloomisn'tit – ohGodI'msosorryIdidn'trealizeyou – " He continued in a similarly incomprehensible strain for well over five minutes, pausing only occasionally to breathe. (Austria spared a thought to how incredible the boy's lungpower really was.)

With no small effort, both Prussia and Austria managed to tune the continued apologies out, focusing on their mutually guarded and obstinate expressions. For a moment, it was as though they could hear one another's thoughts. Both knew that Prussia had been asked to stay upstairs when the Baltics visited, and both knew that he wouldn't have forgotten Latvia's regularly scheduled session. He was intentionally making a show of independence, and while his point had been proven, his slight nervousness at being talked about and spotted had made him eager to prove it further, just to be safe. As a result, while the intelligent thing to do would've been to retreat upstairs so that Latvia might talk with Austria in peace, he wouldn't leave.

All of this information passed between the pair in the time that it took Latvia to exhaustedly run down. He concluded with a final, " - I'mreallyreallysorry," then paused for long enough to consider the situation. He rounded on Prussia. "Hey, wait a minute," he said suspiciously, staring directly into red eyes. "Why are you here?"

"I? Oh, I'm, umm… I'm um…" Prussia made a hopelessly indecisive gesture and trailed off. "You know, Austria can explain it better than I can. Austria?"

Austria glared at his brother for a long moment. That's when he decided it. Prussia had, intentionally or no, violated his patient's privacy. Now it was time to return the favor.

He made sure that his tone was as flat, factual, and blunt as Latvia's had been when he turned to the smaller nation and replied, "He's here for the same reason you are."

Had Latvia been carrying another cup (which, thankfully, he wasn't), he would've dropped it. As it was, the only thing he could drop was his jaw, which obligingly fell a good inch further than most would believe possible. Seemingly unaware of it, he raised a finger and pointed it at Prussia, stuttering, "H-he, h-h-he?"

Amazingly, it was Prussia who eventually took pity on the boy's apparent inability to string thoughts together. "Yes, me," he said in an uncharacteristically solemn tone.

"Well, then," Austria interrupted briskly. "I suppose that Latvia and I should get back to it." He smiled clinically at his brother, confident that he was once more in control. "Would you please go upstairs until we've finished?" Prussia nodded mutely and left.

Austria tried as hard as he could to not feel smug about his victory. 'After all, part of the reason you don't want family members or close friends treating each other is that the personal relationships and conflicts start to interfere with the therapeutic environment… And vice-versa. Perhaps Prussia should find someone in his own country to work with him.

'On the other hand, it's not as though a non-nation would understand what he's been through. Maybe if I could find someone else highly regarded for therapy…'

Offhandedly assuring Latvia (again) that he wasn't upset about… something, Austria went back to the main room and picked up his notepad. 'Meanwhile, back to the business at hand.'

"So, how's industrial catch-up going?"