Main conference room

10.17 a.m.

Turkey frowned at the empty hallway before him. He was about to slam the door shut again and curse the pranksters when his eyes locked on something at the ground level. Beside his leg, Puffin walked in, looking very proud of herself. After the clean-looking bird—who had, from the looks of it, just taken a bath in some fountain outside—a dirty hand appeared, shaking and trying to get a better grip on the floor. Painfully slow and very dirty China dragged himself into the conference room and groaned. He'd definitely seen better days.

"Brother?" Korea said enthusiastically and rose up at the same time Puffin noticed Iceland and flew to him, making a neat landing on the top of his head. China whined something in response, slapping Turkey's fingers to make him stop poking him.

Iceland sighed. "What did you do to him, Puffin?"

"Kurr," the bird answered, preening her wing feathers carefully.

"Here you go," Turkey lifted China up by grasping the Asian under the armpits and helped him to his seat. "Had a rough morning?"

China groaned and slammed his head on the tabletop immediately after he'd sat down, very much like he'd done the day before yesterday. Japan patted his shoulder encouragingly and muttered something about endurance, trying to be of help and failing to notice the effort didn't live up to its purpose.

Iceland poked Puffin, annoyed. "Hey. I don't know what you did, but go apologize."

Greece shook his head. Well, that's one missing pair found. But next time I see that damned love-archer I'll boil him in olive oil, marinade him with fasolada and make him eat Turkish food. Then he lapsed into thought again. I'm hungry...

"This is all so ridiculous my head hurts," Switzerland said and groaned behind his hands.

Liechtenstein just smiled encouragingly at him from her seat. "Now now brother, it could be far worse than this."

"Yes," Switzerland said and pointed to Germany. "I could still be in... l-love with... that thing."

Germany frowned at this and tried not to blush, coughing slightly. "What's done is done. No need to cling to the past."

"Yes there is."

"Shut up, Turkey."

Germany coughed anew. "Let's just get one thing straight, Switzerland. I didn't get a chance to remind before because you left so—let's say quickly, though that's an understatement—quickly, but that wrapping paper idea wasn't mine, okay?

"Shut up you porn-freak!" the Swiss exploded. "Not a word more! Or I'll make sure that mouth doesn't open again! Ever!"

"Oh? But I would like to hear more."

"Shut up-!" Switzerland paused, confused for a moment when he saw the person peeking into the room from the crack in the door. "H-Hungary? Anyway, shut up!"

Hungary sighed and stepped in, closing the door behind her. "Pity. Well, I think I have enough material from this conference to live on already, so it's okay."

"This conference?" Finland repeated slowly.

"Welcome," Greece greeted, reluctantly stopping his daydreaming of all the food he could eat later. "Don't worry, you're not late. We haven't started yet."

"Yeah, I figured," Hungary laughed and took her seat. One could easily notice the two open seats that stayed unoccupied beside her.

"Where is Austria, Hungary?" Germany asked casually and then –after a moment of thinking if he should be worried about the last one of the missing trio– added. "Or Prussia?"

"I don't know," Hungary said cheerfully and corrected her bad posture to that of a prim, virtuous woman. She took a quick breath and nodded. "Yes. I don't."

"Details?" Norway asked, quirking his eyebrow. Iceland quirked an eyebrow at him in turn.

"Well." Hungary thought about how to put it. "Firstly, if you're interested, we had fun. Lots of fun. We enjoyed ourselves until Austria came to his senses."

"I can quite imagine," Estonia said quietly, blushing as he glanced in Greece's direction.

"Well it wouldn't have been that bad. He's not an idiot, after all. He can recognize when he's not behaving like himself." Hungary blushed. "But he had... a bit of bad timing with that."

"Bad timing?" Cuba asked, wondering if he'd heard right.

"Okay," Hungary squeaked and drew her knees up to hide her face. "Very bad timing..."

.

Somewhere in Athens

Monday morning

"Ack, dammit," Prussia swore and ruffled his hair violently. He stopped another poor unfortunate passerby at random. "Sorry, I'm looking for a man. Have you seen an arrogant-looking aristocrat wearing a flouncy shirt, and weird pants, or something—I don't usually pay attention, because I like to imagine him without them—Anyway he–"

"Um, excuse me but–," the young man tried to stop him.

"–has kind of brown, freakishly well-kept hair with one annoying, gravity-defying tuft of hair sticking up in the front like an antenna, and glasses that are just begging to be stolen–"

"I haven't–"

"And he has that annoying walking style that says 'I own this piece of dirt I'm stepping on so screw you'. Well actually he wouldn't say 'screw you' he would go like 'please take your undignified bottom elsewhere if you'd be so kind'. Yeah, that sounds more like it..."

The man was becoming more and more confused and starting to it."I haven't seen anyone like that so..."

But Prussia was on a roll. "And he generally looks like he owns the world and anyone who has no musical skills or interest in cakes or good hair or well-kept clothes or a better sense of directions than him, has no right to be on a same square kilometre of ground–"

"Really sir, I–"

"And he has a mole on his face. But otherwise he can be hot. Well, actually the mole kinda helps since he blushes when I touch it. That's one of the moments when he stops being a prat and he's just so damn cute."

"My job and um–"

"And then he just has to ruin it by being that arrogant young master he is. But he is a damn sexy beast in bed. Oh, but you wouldn't reckon that just looking at him, so that doesn't–"

"I haven't seen–"

"–really help you, does it? Or does it show...? Anyway he should look very embarrassed and frustrated right now and I think he's in hurry —and probably lost at the same time— so it should be hard to miss him. I miss him though." Prussia laughed. "Get that? Miss and miss? Oh and he has that cute–"

"I don't know; I haven't seen him!" the young Grecian man cried out, desperate now.

"You haven't?" Prussia said, surprised, oblivious to the human's hardships. "Dammit..."

.

Main Conference Room

10.48 a.m.

"Austria ran away and Prussia is currently searching for him," Hungary explained after a few unneeded details. A few of the assembled enjoyed them though. "I looked with him for a while and then decided to let Prussia do it because it's his fault he ran away—and got lost I think—in the first place."

Germany heaved a deep sigh, but said nothing.

"Interesting," Greece said, though he didn't sound like it. "All of this has been so funny." He sounded poisonous and glanced around to find a good victim (possibly a god) upon whom he could direct his furious gaze. He fixated on Turkey when nobody more appropriate showed up.

Turkey ignored him with a practiced ease. "Isn't that just fine? One thing less to worry, ain't it?"

"True enough, those two can't get along," Germany said. "But when it comes to finding Austria, brother certainly has valid experience. Be it good or bad."

"Isn't it good this time?" Hungary said, purring and hiding behind her knees again. "Austria can't deny how he enjoyed yesterday after all. He'll remember it shortly."

"You prefer it the way it was yesterday, don't you?" Korea guessed, snickering.

"Oh, not at all," Hungary denied, smiling. "Why would I like Prussia being dominated and having his vital regions invaded?"

"She's definitely enjoying it," Iceland said dryly to Finland.

"That's how I heard it," Finland admitted and Norway nodded.

"Now that we've heard what happened to those two idiots, could we please move on?" Switzerland asked. It seemed Liechtenstein's hand was the only thing that kept him from leaping over the table to grasp Germany's throat and then continue out of the door to strangle him in peace.

"Yes, as I was saying," Greece cleared his throat. "I have a damage report details I'd like to... share."

.

Unknown location

Unknown time

"Hey," Taiwan said, leaning her head back against the old brick wall. "Do you know the story of three kids who played hide-and-seek?"

"Do you need a story for that?" Hong Kong asked.

"But this one's different," Taiwan insisted. "They were playing in a forest. There was a criminal on the loose who went hiding there too. The seeker found the criminal and revealed him to the police, but got hurt when the criminal held him hostage. The two other kids who were hiding all the time didn't know anything about this and because the seeker lost consciousness, no one knew they were there. So they survived without getting involved at all."

"Sounds like typical idiot drama material," Hong Kong said and shifted.

"It's a true story not a fairytale," Taiwan said, offended.

"Are you suggesting we should go on hiding so we won't get involved?"

"No, I'm suggesting we should watch out for children who play hide-and-seek."

Hong Kong huffed, making it sound like laughter. "Some Aesop."

Taiwan hit him playfully on the shoulder. "Stop teasing already. Do you still have some fireworks left?"

Hong Kong nodded shortly and glanced up at the window above their heads.

"Enough to distract them?"

A nod again and Taiwan smiled, lifting her gun. "Then...?"

Hong Kong cocked his rifle to ensure it was ready for action. "Olly olly oxen free."

.

The last time: Eros reappears, we'll learn things about Greece's economy, and Norway's trolls finally decide to show up

TBC.

A/N: Yes, this is the next to last part. Don't worry, the last part will be longer. The hits have reached 20 000 and I'm the most grateful to all of you for that. Now I have some notes:

Fasolada: A traditional Greek dish. It is bean soup made of beans, tomatoes, carrot, celery and a generous amount of olive oil usually served with a variety of salty side dishes. (straight from wikipedia \o/) If there is someone out there who thinks this is wrong, please correct me.

Olly olly oxen free: Non-english speakers may not know this, since it's not included into the common vocabulary of an average person. It's a shout for the seeker used in the game of hide-and-seek and means he/she gives up searching and everyone should get out of their hiding places.

Rennesakura: Canada was already inside =) You're welcome (though I'm not exactly sure what made you so happy).

ficfan3484: Norway and Iceland aren't impressed by the fact Finland cooked, they're horrified. Finland can cook, but he has too many weird ideas along the way that he actually rivals England with the end result (I should know, I'm a Finn. Wanna come for a supper some day?). This isn't my invention: I'm quite sure it was sensei himself who mentioned it first.

And I have those stories, but I'm not going to tell them~. You will always be a good person. =) ALL people who review this are good. I actually don't have any stories with Spain in the lead, though he shows up in most of them.

Artemis1000: Yes that scene happened on Monday morning. :)

HeartlessLittleHamster: What did I do again? *goes off singing Britney Spears* (damn you for that!)

Emzy, hang on tight, it's the last spurt before the goal.