A/N: Thank you all you great reviewers!

Alright, I know I haven't done much with the country thing in a while, but next chapter will actually involve some of that. And, if all goes well, it will involve a newly revealed, important plot point, so look forward to that.

And a note that this has become the longest story I've remained invested in. I am happy because I have not yet lost interest!

I don't own Hetalia.

Matthew was vaguely concerned about his cousin, which had become more serious in the weeks since regaining his memory, though he did a very good job of hiding it, so no one else had noticed any change whatsoever.

It was hard for all of them, and the first few weeks had admittedly been a disaster for Matthew, who had started crying at random times, and Gilbert and Alfred had comforted him, though at night Matthew heard Gilbert crying and Alfred had faint bags under his eyes from sleeplessness. And now Gilbert was angry at Matthew for reasons he really couldn't understand, but at least he now had Ned and Yakaterina to talk to sometimes.

Speaking of Ned...

"Hi, Matthew."

"Oh," Matthew said, smiling at the other boy. "Hello. What's new?"

Ned shrugged. "Not much. Do you maybe want to eat with me?"

"Sure," Matthew said, before picking up his tray and Kumajiro, following the other boy to a table across the cafeteria.

They sat down at the almost empty table and Ned began with, "Did you you get new glasses?"

"Oh, yeah. Do you like them? I kind of like these oval ones more than the rectangular ones Alfred has, and maybe it will help stop people from mistaking me for him."

Ned nodded and said, agreeably, "Yeah, they look great on you. They make your eyes really large and cute."

"O-oh," Matthew said, uncomfortable with the compliment. "I ummm... like your new scarf. It's smart for, you know, cold and December."

Ned half smiled, and answered, "Yeah, it was an early Christmas present from Bella. I told her not to spend a lot of money, but, well... Hey, I saw this and got it for you as a little Christmas present. I figured I could just give it to you early."

"Ned reached into his coat pocket and brought out a small hockey stick, much to Matthew's confusion. "It's a pen, see?" Ned pulled off the cap and revealed the pen part. "I know you like hockey so..."

"Oh, thank you Ned! Your so nice! ... But I haven't got you anything! Maybe I could draw you something? I'm not super great, but I could draw a tulip or something," Matthew said, hugging Ned quickly.

Ned smiled fully, looking satisfied. "It's fine, you don't need to do anything for me, but I just felt like I should get this for you. Now, I'm sorry, but I promised Bella I would work on homework with her, so I have to go. Sisters can be so annoying, can't they?"

Matthew just smiled as Ned stood, waving goodbye. He got up too, after a minute, and walked to his room. At moments like this, he could almost forget that he was Canada. And then he was struck by reality.

Pushing open the door, he saw Gilbert, sitting on his bed, tears on his face. Crying was becoming to common among his friends recently. He knew something was wrong g with Francis especially, but the ninth grader just wouldn't say what the hell it was. Matthew ran to Gilbert's side and asked quickly, "What is wrong?"

Gilbert just shook his head, "The memories, zhey just hurt... a lot of fighting." Then he glared up at the blond, his eyes flashing through his tears, as if he suddenly remembered his actual life for a minute. "Not zhat you'd care anyways. Nobody does, really. And I'm scared. I'm not even really a country anymore. I vas unified vith West. And the asshole, Russia, with his goddamned wall..."

Oh. Matthew suddenly remembered that. Don't blame him, half of his own memories were still fuzzy, so how was he supposed to remember everyone else's? "I-I am sorry."

"Like you fucking care. Go flirt vith your Dutch boyfriend, or Ukrainian friend."

Matthew blinked. He didn't like Yakaterina that way, and he only had a sort of crush on Ned, so why was Gilbert being so jealous? And he was actually more attractive and interesting than either...

Okay. Changing the topic before Matthew started blushing.

"No, Gilbert, you are my best friend besides Alfred, and he doesn't count since he is family. I'm not leaving you alone like this. You are only fourteen, you can't deal with being a country on your own."

Gilbert sighed, his tears falling slower. "But you are handling it much better, and you are only twelve, and I want to be strong, Teddy Bear."

Matthew laughed. "If you haven't noticed, I have a slightly less bloody history, and I am pretty much ignoring my problem. It's the best way I can deal, right now."

"Oh. Okay, zhat makes sense. I'm glad ve are talking again."

Matthew smiled. "Me too," he whispered.

Alfred made his around, wanting to talk to the Nordics, and hoping to avoid his friends. He was kind of in a mood that made him want to avoid Matthew, who would figure out something was wrong and want to talk.

But nothing was wrong, he was just kind of not in the best of moods.

He went to the library and walked to the table that the Nordics had claimed at the beginning of the year. He liked hanging with them, because Tino was really nice and often had cookies, and Matthias was super funny and great, and the others tolerated him, probably because Matthias was even harder to handle.

And because of his complete lack of history with them, except for that he may be Tino's country brother (he still had no clue about that, but they did look very similar, and Finland had been the first to find America), but besides that, he really hadn't interacted with them too much as America.

Alfred was also sort of dealing with an identity crisis. It was hard, okay? He suddenly had the memories of someone who was similar, but still felt kind of different. And being America had seriously messed with any hints of a relationship with Arthur, which sucked, because Alfred really liked him.

"Hey, guys! How are you! Mind if I sit and talk to you people just for a bit?" He looked at Matthias, mostly, who was the self-proclaimed leader of the group.

Matthias grinned and high fived him. "Of course, Icey was just talking about how he made a new little friend. Hong Kong, was it?"

Alfred sat down next to Tino, who waved cheerfully, before listening in.

"His name isn't Hong Kong. He is named Kaoru. And he is really interesting."

Lukas shook his head, and Alfred recalled that the two were brothers or something. "I won't let you hang out with some older kid I don't know. I forbid it."

"You can't use age as an excuse! Everyone here is older than me! And he isn't even that much, he is just a couple months! And just because you don't know him doesn't mean anything!"

The bickering went on between the two brothers, while the others decided to move on. Tino looked at Alfred and said, his voice hushed, "how are you coping with being a country, Alfred?"

"Ummm... Okay? Yeah, okay!" And Alfred asked, desperate to change the focus off of him, "What about you, Tino?"

Tino smiled, "It is very difficult, but Sve has been helping me, and I, with him."

"You two are like an old married couple!" Matthias laughed, making Lukas briefly be distracted from the argument to hit Matthias upside the head. "Hey!"

Berwald just looked at Alfred, but it didn't scare Alfred like it did most people. He thought that Ivan's creepy stares were much more intimidating (he may or may not have joked about the space face at some point).

After a few more minutes of chitchat, Alfred finally said goodbye and walked away, humming to himself, and feeling much better.

Back at his and Arthur's room he discovered Arthur wasn't there, which he was glad about. He just wanted to be alone for a bit, that was all. And he had to work on the present...

Yes, he had gotten a present for Arthur. It had just seemed perfect when he saw it, and couldn't wait to give it to him.

At least, if things weren't so awkward.

But maybe this would fix it!

Except for being a country. It couldn't fix that. He had asked the others how far their memories went, but most said that it went up to a specific day, except for Arthur's, who had gone up to just a few days before the end of the others memories. But everyone was still trying so hard to remember what had happened, and Alfred figured they would hopefully get it soon.

But meanwhile...

Alfred pulled the box out from under his bed and scanned the contents, tweaking each item to make it perfect, just like it should. It wasn't actually gonna take much work, but whatever.

He wanted the awkwardness to go away and for it to be like when they kissed... which neither had mentioned in a month.

Alfred knew it was sort of weird, what with England being America's caretaker. But he wasn't quite America. And Arthur wasn't quite England.

And that, was that.

A/N: I've decided to split our main characters into groups on how they deal with being countries:

Tries to just ignore the problem and wait for something else to happen: Antonio, Matthew, and Feliciano

Wants to deal with the problem head on, but end up having some emotional issues: Arthur, Alfred, Lovino and Gilbert

Accepts it, and just sometimes directly think about it: Francis, Kiku, and Ludwig

So, that is basically my idea of how the characters would react, however, those who are ignoring the problem are only trying to deal with it for themselves before they try to figure everything out.

Anyways, thank you, again,those who reviewed last chapter, and please review and give me any advice you have on this chapter!