Has anyone noticed that in chapter 5 she has a dream and in 15 she has another? *nudge nudge* ;) Muwahahahahahahaha~~

"Dammit dammit dammit dammit..." I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest to try and retain some warmth. It was freezing and the sky was dark and stormy with its raining clouds. 'Now I wish I hadn't left my jacket in the bag...' The rain was coming down harder and harder, obscuring so much of what I could see and creating a steady rhythm of heavy pattering and splashes. "Go find shelter," I told myself.

A little girl's giggle sounded from next to me and I jumped, shrieking in surprise. My eyes darted down to find Selena standing there with a hand over her mouth as she laughed.

"Do you talk to yourself often?" she asked.

"You followed me!" I exclaimed. "How did you follow me?"

Selena rolled her big golden eyes. "Honestly, Melina. I think you would have figured out by now that I'm not a normal little kid. I can do magic and things like that, duh."

'Alright, so I'm being visited by little magical people again-'

"Hey, I'm only this little because I wanted to be," Selena said, interrupting my thoughts. I ignored her comment and kept my train of thought going down their tracks.

'- and I'm lost in the middle of a rainstorm. Well, I guess the world would seriously have to hate me if this got too much worse.'

"You should never say that," Selena warned.

"What?" I asked her before my head throbbed painfully. I gasped and put my hands to my temples automatically, me eyes squeezed shut. 'What's going on?' I wondered, and then I heard... voices. I was hearing voices in my head!

"Oh God no no please don't let me be going bonkers!" I yelled, shaking my head with my hands clapped around my ears as if that would make the people shut up. But when I opened my eyes pictures began to go along with the sounds, and the voices weren't all talking at once anymore.

"Can we go to the park today, Al?" I was still tiny (like in all of my "memory-dreams". I pulled on Al's hand while he sat on a couch and drank his coffee.

"Get 'em! Get 'em! Yes!" I was sitting in front of an older-style TV, watching cartoons excitedly.

"IIItaaalyyy~!" I launched myself at a happy-looking (duh) Feliciano bearing a platter of pasta (again, duh).

"What's this? What's this? What's this?" I was in the woods, walking a nature trail with Matthew and pointing at all the plants I didn't know (or knew but felt like asking and hearing his answer).

"Wh-What was that?" I stammered, out of breath for some reason.

"You are remembering things too soon," Selena said mystically. "Something's blocking your memories. Very strong magic."

"But why?" I pleaded, noting that I was kneeling on the puddled pavement.

"I don't know the answer to that," she replied slowly.

"Well there has to be someone-" I froze when the voices came back, then the video clips that went with them.

"I~'m gonna getcha!" Alfred sang as he chased me around the living room, lots of other people all in their teens watching with amused smiles. I giggled and squealed when he caught me and tickled my sides.

"Kylie dressed me up!" I exclaimed excitedly, spinning to show off my pretty blue sundress and my long hair with small locks braided with ribbon here and there. "Isn't it pretty?"

"There's something in the water!" I shrieked, clinging to Matthew as he, Alfred and I were drifting on a lake, fishing.

"What is it?" Matthew and Alfred asked, looking to where I was frantically pointing. A shadow slipped into the darkness and disappeared.

"I don't see anything, dudette," Al said. Little Me crossed her arms and sat glumly on the bench.

"I believe you, _," Matthew whispered into my ear, and my eyes lit up. I hugged his arm tightly.

"Yay, I'm glad~"

When I finally opened my eyes, Selena was gone and the rain was coming down even harder. There was a distant rumble of thunder and I flinched - thunder was a little of a sore spot for me. I shivered and hugged myself tighter, standing from the puddle I'd been kneeling in. 'I have tofind my way back to Al's house.

"This isn't working," I mumbled to myself, a little POed now. The rain had been falling for at least an hour, and that's about how long I'd been searching so far. With no luck. At all. Crossing my arms over my chest, I stuck my frozen hands in my armpits and shuffled on, biting back a scream of frustration.

I glared up at the dark grey sky and felt something dig into the back of my neck. I froze in fear for an instant, images from movies where someone gets mugged by a villain reeling through my head. When nothing happened I put a hand to the back of my neck and felt a small piece of cold plastic-y metal in my hair. I breathed a sigh of relief as my fingers recognized the object: it was the hair clip I used to hide the little loop-dee-doo or whatever they were called. An awning called to me and I ran under it, happy to be out of the biting rain.

My teeth weren't chattering yet but soon, very soon. I was freezing to death here! And no one was coming to help me out of the rain or help me get back to the mall at least. There hadn't been any cars passing by, which I thought was strange for a city.

"Unfair world, I curse you," I muttered, my arms still wrapped around me to retain any warmth I had left.

"That's not very nice," a certain little girl's voice chided obnoxiously from behind me, and I turned. There she stood, not a drop of water on her.

"Well I'm not in a very nice mood right now," I retorted. "I'm cold and soaking wet and lost. Who do you know would be in a nice mood after all that?" It was rhetorical, yet she answered anyway.

"Not many people, sure, but it's not the world's fault you're having a bad day."

I sighed and hopped up and down, shaking off oceans of water in my clothes. "I know, I know. But this sucks!"

"You still have the flower," she stated, pointing to the bright blossom I held in my right hand.

"Yeah, I just... Do you want it back?" I asked, offering it to her.

"No, you keep it. It's a gift so don't try to give it back, silly." Selena giggled and I rolled my eyes, shoving my hands back in my armpits with the flower sticking out in the air behind me.

"Thanks, I guess."

"Maybe I can give you one more Christmas present," Selena said with a sly grin.

"Such as...?"

"Follow me~!" she sang as she skipped into the rain. "I know the way back to Alfred's house~"

"You do?" I exclaimed. "Why didn't you say so?"

"I dunno~ But I swear, Melina, you managed to get yourself even farther from your destination than you were before!"

I deadpanned. "Figures..."

So we walked. And walked. And walked. Did I mention we may have walked? Just a tad?

Matthew's POV~

'Oh god oh god oh god where is she?' I thought frantically as I looked around for Melina. 'We were walking and then when I turned around to look at her she was gone! Where the hellis she?'

"Yo, Canada!"Alfred's loud voice said as he came up to me. "Shopping's done, you ready to go?"

"No! Melina disappeared, we can't leave yet!" I exclaimed, cursing my inability to speak very loudly.

"Dude, she's missing?" Al said in surprise. "What're you talking about?"

"We were walking around and I looked back because I thought she was being awfully quiet, but she was gone!" I said quickly. "What're we gonna do?"

"Chill, bro. We'll just get the mall cops to look for her," he said.

"B-But I've looked everywhere!" I protested. "What if she's not in the mall anymore?"

"Bro, Matt, we'll find her, no worries! Alfred laughed heroically and sped off to find someone to help search for her.

"I do worry," I muttered before folowing him.

"She's not anywhere in the mall, sir," the manager reported to the both of us as we sat in his office, waiting for the good news or otherwise.

'I guess it's otherwise.'

"Are you sure you looked everywhere?" my brother asked to make sure.

"Yes, sir. We've even had the restrooms searched in all seriousness."

I tuned them out and sighed into the top of Kumazuzu's head.

"Are you okay?" my polar bear asked.

"How could I be? I feel a little responsible for this mess..."

'Melina, you'd better be alright.'

Melina's POV~

As we walked and walked I had to pause and clutch my head in pain as tiny scatterings of memory came back to me. What spurred these on? The names of streets, of course. I couldn't get a little walk in the rain togo normally, now, could I?

Leather Street made me remember the feel of my father's hugs, his leather jacket and the natural smell he had. Campfire smoke, an animal-y musk, a faint trace of mint and rich earth. Bike Ride Way brought out the memories of America teaching me how to ride my bike and his applauding when I rode without training wheels. But the worst one I got was also the best memory I could have ever received (other than a straight answer to who I am).

"A-Ah!" I actually shrieked this time; all the other times I'd been able to endure silently by gritting my teeth. This one was massive, though, I could tell by the level of pain it was causing me. Wanna know the name of the street that made me yell and collapse onto the ground like I'd been shot in the head? I'll tell ya.

Sisters Avenue.

America didn't look quite as young as he had when Little Me had been given to him and my father had left. I looked the same age, though, if a little less child-like in my actions and personality. The weather was nippy and the sky was overcast, and I could feel that we were close to me geographically. Like, bordering me close. America was holding me up with one arm, his other hand on my back supportively. We were walking down a well-worn path in the woods, and it was mid-day. The plant-life around us was similar to my own (at least from what I remembered from that one memory).

America stopped walking and checked his watch, it was close to noon. He set me down on the ground and I smoothed out my littlw hite dress almost nervously. America noticed my fidgeting and chuckled a little.

"I know you're nervouse, _, but try to relax."

"Easier said than done," I replied, all traces of my little kid lisp gone. I took my ahoge between my index and thumb and twirled it with concentration.

"No worries, girly!" he insisted. "Come on." I looked up and bumped fists with my brother, smiling brightly.

"Okay, I'll try."

"That's my girl," a deeper and older voice said from behind us, and I whirled around in shock. There he was with his red hair and whiskers, emerald green eyes that sparkled with laughhter, and soft leather jacket over his usual workclothes.

"Pa!" I cried out in happiness, racing over to him as quickly as my stubby little toddler legs could carry me. He knelt to catch me in the flying tackle of a hug I launched at him. He only had one free arm to hug me with, but I didn't care. "Pa, I've missed you so much!"

"I missed you too, Munchkin," he said in a light laugh. "How ya been?"

"Great! I've been so excited to see you again, though!" I replied, burying my face in his jacket and inhaling his scent to commit it to memory.

"Al been treatin' ya right?" I could imagine the half-joking look he probably shot at Alfred.

"'Course I have, _!" America replied with mock hurt. "I am the hero, after all."

"Yup," Pa said, and I giggled at his sarcastic undertone. "_, you wanna meet your sis?"

I looked up in shock. "My wha-?" It was then that I noticed the small white bundle with raven-colored hair that had my Pa's other arm occupied.

"_, meet _." My new sister looked up from Pa's shoulder, which she'd been sobbing into quietly. Her black hair was long and shiny-looking, and she had the same emerald orbs Pa and I shared. Her skin was tanned like she spent a lot of time in the sun, or maybe she had a dark-skinned heritage. Come to think of it, I tanned well and Pa was pretty dark all year round. She didn't say anything to me and just clung to Pa tightly.

"I don't wanna go," she stated in a firm yet watery voice.

"_, you know there's no choice in the matter," Pa said sternly.

'I wish I knew their names' the part of me that was watching this all pan out thought.

"_, would ya talk with _ while the countries talk?" Pa asked me as he set us both on our feet and stood. "Get ta know each other." I nodded and turned to my sister, but her back was to me while she sat on the dirt. I walked around to be in front of her but she turned to the right to avoid me.

"Hey, it's kinda hard to talk when I can't see your face," I said, and I'll bet she grumbled angrily.

"I'm not going with you and the boy with glasses," she stated firmly, and she had a slight accent I remembered from my slightly younger days: Native American.

"Why not? It's pretty great living with Al. There's tons of stuff to do and he isn't very strict," I said, sitting next to her.

"Yeah, but if I join him and leave Pa there won't be anything left to tie him to the world! He'll be gone!"

I started. "What are you talking about?"

"Once I leave him then AMerica has all of Dad's territory and he'll cease to exist!"

"That's not true!" I denied. "He'll come and live with us! It... It's not like we'll never see him again!"

"Yes it is. He'll be gone and I'll be alone," my sister insisted, and then she started to cry into her bent knees.

Unsure of what else to do, I walked closer to her on my knees and put my arms around her, hugging my sister gently. Surprisingly she didn't protest and even hugged me back, whimpering sorrowfully into my shoulder.

"Sister, don't you leave me, too."

"I won't. I promise."

"Boy, that one was a doozy, wasn't it?"

My eyes flickered open and sensations came back to my stiff and cold body that lay on the wet sidewalk. My cheek pressed painfully into the rough concrete and I was sprawled out over an entire square of the sidewalk. The rain was coming down in a heavy torrent that was drenching me even further, if that were possible. 'I guess you learn something about yourself every day.' I lifted the hand in front of my nose and brushed away the wet locks that were covering my eyes, but when my fingers trailed down my cheeks they found trails of warm saltwater running down them instead of rainwater.

"What was that memory of, Melina?" Selena asked softly, holding the hand attached to the arm that was pinned under me.

"I-It was... my sister," I stammered quietly, the steady drumbeat of rain nearly drowning out my halting words. Had Selena been any farther away, it would have looked and sounded like I'd only mouthed to her. "And America is... mybrother. I had a dad, but... he's... gone now..." More burning tears scorched down my cheeks as I shut my eyes and tried to curl up into a ball.

Selena tugged gently on my hand. "Come on, Melina, it's too cold and wet for you to stay out here for much longer. You'll get very sick, so let's get you back to your brother."

I propped myself up one elbow and peered in all directions through the rainy veil. "No one saw me on the ground or anything?"

"No, I made you invisible and intangible whenever someone came by. They would have interrupted your memories if they tried to help you, and you need this."

I coughed dryly into a fist, tearing up my sore-ish throat just a little bit more. "I sure don'tneed all this." I gestured to the bawling sky.

My little ghost/apparition/imaginary friend giggled. "So then let's go~" She wouldn't stop tugging until I got up and started walking again. It was practically pitch black by now.

"How long was I out?"

"I dunno, a couple hours I think."

"Oh how lovely..."

Yes, please note the sarcasm.

~Omniscient POV (A/N: EPIC WORD, OMNISCIENT!)

"Thank you for your help, officer. Keep up the good work, all of you," America said seriously into the mouthpiece of his cordless landline. He put it back in its cradle and looked at his brother, who was writing something in a notebook with concentration. Kumajirou was somewhere else, maybe raiding the fridge for a snack. "They haven't found her yet, but they're still looking."

"Yeah." Canada hadn't said much at all since they left the mall, choosing to write in an almost scribbling scrawl in a spiral notebook instead.

America looked at the outside world through a part in the curtains. 'God, it's raining hard. Is that because of me?' He shook his head rapidly to banish the depressing thoughts. "I'm the hero!" That statement cheered him up, if just a little. You couldn't say the same for the rain, though, or Canada.

Only a handful of blocks away now, Melina flinched again at the distant rumble of thunder and hugged herself even tighter with one arm, her other hand being grasped by Selena's as she was led along down the street.

"We're almost there, Melina!" Selena said happily, picking up their pace just a little.

Melina wiped away more rainwater from her eyes with the back of her hand that still held the poinsettia. 'It's so dark... a c-cold. Now even my thoughts are chattering?! Jeez...'

Then Selena's small hand left Melina's and the young girl disappeared with a fading "Merry Christmas, Melina."

The miserable teen looked around and noticed a pair of open gates that led to a circular driveway. The driveway had a path to the house, which was lit up with porch lights and path lights and lamplight from inside. Altogether it was as bright as a lighthouse, or at least served the same purpose. An SUV was parked by the path leading up to the door, and Melina could just barely make out the color scheme of the house: red, white, and blue.

'I must've been really out of it to be here so soon. Oh well!'

She slipped between the gates and hurried up the driveway to the path and was at the front door in moments. "Oh thank God I made it." She turned the knob and stepped into the entryway, shutting the door quickly after her so as not to let out any of the blessed warmth that washed over her like an ocean wave. "America? Canada? I'm back!"

"Melina?!" two male voices chorused from the living room as they shot up and ran into the foyer. "Melina, you're okay!"

"M-Mostly," she chattered with a grin. They both ran over and hugged her tightly, America on one side and Canada on the other.

"Where were you? What happened? Melina, your're soaking wet!" was all she could make out from the brothers' babbling.

"Guys. Guys. Guys! I like... breathing!" she managed, and America realized he'd been aqueezing a little.

"Sorry 'bout that, dudette," he apologized sincerely. "What happened to you?"

Melina was just about to answer when her hands flew up to cover her mouth and nose. She sneezed twice, the first move and explosive than the second.

"America, where are your towels?" Canada asked quickly.

"I'll get 'em, you stay here." America sped off down the hall in search of a large bath towel. Canada kept hugging the frozen girl, his body warmth a welcome gift. Melina lened into him gratefully and shut her eyes.

"I feel like my nose is gonna fall off," she mumbled. Canada just hugged tighter and rubbed her back to let friction help warm her, too.

A huge white towel went over her head and Canada stepped away from her. Melina opened her eyes to see the super-soft cloth in front of her face and wearily reached her hands up to dry her hair. Once that was accomplished she let the towel fall to her shoulders, but that motion dragged the hair clip out of her hair and freed her ahoge-thing.

"E-Eh?" Canada stammered quietly in shocked amazement.

"Duuude..." America said, atonished.

"Hmmm?" she hummed, but then exhaustion overtook her and she passed out, falling forward. Two pairs of arms caught her before she hit the ground.

"Ah! Call a doctor or something!" Canada exclaimed, cradling the unconscious Melina to his chest as America hurried to the phone to do just that. Canada looked at the sleeping girl in his arms and frowned, stroking a few damp strands out of her closed eyes. 'What happened to you, Melina?"